Tag Archives: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins

Rerouting Money To Good Use

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On Sunday, Hot Air posted an article about some of the changes being made in the way the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spends its money.

The article quotes an article at The Center Square:

“VA staff will now get to spend more time with Veterans, VA facilities can focus on treating Veterans, and VA can manage its staff according to Veterans’ needs and national security requirements, not union demands,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said. 

Earlier this month, Veterans Affairs canceled its contracts with most unions on Wednesday, saying the unions fight against the best interests of veterans. VA said the move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order from March to do away with public employee unions at the federal level after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction that previously stopped 21 agencies from implementing the executive order.

Before 1962, federal employees did not have the right to collective bargaining. On January 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 that granted federal employees the right to collective bargaining.Theoretically, an Executive Order by a President can be reversed later by a different President. This could get interesting.

The article at The Center Square reports:

When VA canceled those contacts, it cut the number of VA bargaining unit employees from about 375,000 to about 7,000. Trump’s executive order exempted public safety employee unions, so employment contracts covering VA police officers, firefighters and security guards represented by unions will remain in place.

VA is redirecting nearly $45 million per year in federal funds from unions to America’s Veterans by ending taxpayer-funded union time, reclaiming federal office space used for public union activities, and getting back federal IT equipment.

Ending taxpayer-funded union time is expected to save the most money. In 2024, VA spent $39.75 million to allowed 1,961 VA employees to spend nearly 750,000 hours working on behalf of government unions rather than VA beneficiaries. After ditching the union contract, the agency no longer has to allow union employees to do union work on taxpayer time. 

VA officials said that vast majority of these employees are back working full time for VA in the positions they were hired to do rather than doing work on behalf of the union. This includes more than 1,000 employees serving in direct patient-care roles.

VA also reclaimed more than 180,000 square feet of office space worth about $5.4 million that had been provided to unions free of charge. The space will be repurposed to serve VA beneficiaries, including expanded administrative and clinical services in several facilities across the country.

Our veterans deserve the best healthcare available.

This Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been spending its money.

The article reports:

Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Doug Collins confirmed that the Biden administration’s VA diverted “manpower” away from Veteran Care (VC) to help illegal migrants obtain health care.

In an interview with Andrew Wilkow of the Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM Patriot, the new VA secretary revealed that after stepping into the role earlier this month he found instances of time being used to “process health applications and stuff” for illegals:

The article explains:

“Did the VA, under the previous administration, move resources away from Veteran Care into benefits for illegals… Did it happen, or are we going to look into it?” Wilkow asked Collins, who served as a Republican U.S. congressman from Georgia from 2013 to 2021. 

“I think what we’ve found…not maybe much invested, but — We actually took time away from what I’ll call Veteran Care to process health applications and stuff, is what we’ve seemed to find, and we’re still looking into this,” Collins replied. “That’s going to stop.”

“I mean, I know they weren’t putting illegals in Walter Reed —,” Wilkow added.

Collins responded, “No, no, no, but there was a use of resources that were going to help process this mass claim. It could be better directed.”

Again clarifying that illegal migrants were not receiving medical procedures from VA hospitals, Wilkow asked if VA “manpower may have been used” to help illegal aliens.

“Yeah, that’s what we’ve seen so far,” Collins confirmed.

All Veterans Affairs resources should be used for veterans. We have no obligation to people who are here illegally and have broken our laws to be here. How many veterans have waited long periods of time to get the services that they needed and were entitled to because the administrative arm of the Veterans Administration was directed elsewhere?