Secretary Doug Collins outlines a plan for 'streamlining' care at Veterans Affairs [View all]

Source: Scripps News

Posted 8:31 PM, Apr 21, 2025


As the Trump administration approaches 100 days in its second term, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins describes a focus on 'customer service' as he settles into his role leading the department, amid efforts to trim the federal government.

"We're going to service the veterans and the needs that that they have statutorily, and what they've been, what they've earned. So our healthcare benefits, disability benefits, education benefits, housing, all those kind of things. So we're very much focused on customer service," Collins said. "The biggest difference you're going to see is a streamlining and really a focus on making sure that everything we do in the VA is efficiently serviced toward that veteran process."

Across agencies, there was has been an effort from the administration to trim the workforce and cut what its views as waste. The VA has canceled DEI related contracts, canceled nearly 600 "non-mission critical or duplicative contracts," and sought to place probationary employees on leave.

"And there was a number of 15% put out of our workforce, which for us is rather large. Most people don't realize that the VA workforce currently is larger than the active duty Army. So that would be a lot of people. 80,000 is one of the numbers thrown around. But it's a goal for us, because we're never going to put in jeopardy patient health care or the disability benefits getting to the people who need them, the veterans who have earned them," Collins said.

Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/military/secretary-doug-collins-outlines-a-plan-for-streamlining-care-at-veterans-affairs