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The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday easily advanced the nomination of former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins to be Veterans Affairs secretary, setting him up for a full Senate vote that likely won’t be conflicting
The panel voted 18-1, with the lone “no” vote coming from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who said Collins’ plans for the VA “were not in line” with what she believed that was right for veterans across the country. .
Among their concerns was the possibility that Collins would overturn a rule by the Biden administration that allows the VA to provide abortions to veterans for a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when a woman’s life pregnant is at risk, even in states where it has been done. been largely outlawed.
Collins, a Navy veteran, Air Force Reserve chaplain and former pastor, during your confirmation hearing he did not commit to keeping the two-year rule after being questioned by Hirono.
“It’s something that has been looked at here as what the law actually says, and the original 1992 law says that the VA does not perform abortions. Two years ago, that was a decision that was looked at and decided. I will tell you this: We will look at this issue when it comes in to confirm that the VA is actually following the law,” Collins said at the time.
But Collins received support from the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who said he was impressed by many of his responses and commitments to veterans during his nomination hearing, particularly the concerning the expansion of the Compact Act, which expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn waste and other toxic substances, as well as improving VA facilities and prevention of homelessness and suicide of veterans.
“I hope that he is the kind of lawyer that we will really need in this era when the fiscal challenges will be greater than ever and the pressure to cut costs to cut costs, to carry out harmful policies that can The negative impact of our veterans will also be bigger,” Blumenthal said before the vote.
One of the largest agencies in the federal government, with more than 400,000 employees, the VA has been struggling to expand its health care delivery system. The high costs and long wait times for care for former service members have been at the forefront of his struggles, which Collins pledged to address if confirmed.
“At the end of the day, the veteran is taking care of himself. The VA cure will happen… (but) there are different expressions of how we do it best. We don’t do the same things 40 years ago that we still do today,” Collins said. “Our newest veterans deserve all the access to find care where they can.”
Collins’ nomination will easily be approved by the full Senate, with a vote expected next week.
