At Hearing, Blumenthal Demands Information From VA Secretary: 'I Want Numbers'

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - After multiple requests from Congress for information and months of stonewalling from the Trump Administration, Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today demanded data from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins at a Committee oversight hearing.

Blumenthal started his questioning by pressing the Secretary for a full accounting of $6 billion VA was given to spend on health care costs, which was reportedly instead used to cover the cost of cuts in staff-including the Administration's deferred resignation program and voluntary early retirements: "Can you provide this Committee with a full accounting of the six billion dollars, which I think is very important because apparently it was used to push out essential VA health care providers-rather than sustaining VA medical operations as intended?...[R]ather than going into the rhetoric-I want the numbers."

Blumenthal continued by asking for information surrounding VA's staffing losses under the Trump Administration: "Talking about numbers, my understanding is that more than 40,000 employees have left the VA since last January. Can you provide this Committee with a detailed, updated workforce compilation of data? The number of staff who have left VA since January 2025, broken down by facility and position? And the list of positions and vacancies each facility plans to cut based on the caps you set late last year?...I want numbers…I want the breakdown. We've asked for it repeatedly, sir. We have not received it. I'm asking again in this forum-I shouldn't have to do so."

Blumenthal also pressed the Secretary for details surrounding the Department's overdue annual veteran suicide report-which has purportedly been complete since September. Blumenthal noted that VA's Legislative Affairs team issued a "non-concur" to the report, preventing it from being transmitted to Congress, and pushed Collins for it to be released: "Well it's overdue, can you provide it?...I think you owe it to Congress and veterans that the report is issued."

Today's hearing follows Blumenthal's release last week of a comprehensive report, Breaking the Pact: Impacts of Trump, DOGE, and Doug Collins' Ongoing Assault on Veterans, detailing the harm and impacts of the Trump Administration's draconian directives and cuts on veterans. Among its many findings, the report revealed a historic loss of staff, dire health care staffing shortages, and spiking VA mental health care wait times. Based on these findings, Blumenthal asked Secretary Collins for updated facility-by-facility data for wait times on mental health care access-noting that his data shows nearly one-third of states have wait times for new patients exceeding 40 days.

The full text of Blumenthal's opening is copied below and a video link is available here.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Welcome to Secretary Collins, to your team and to all who are here today and perhaps listening by livestream. I want to begin by taking a moment to honor the memory of Alex Pretti. As I think all of you know, Alex was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis V.A. Medical Center. One of the most demanding jobs at the V.A. health care system and he was one of the most dedicated of the staff who served our nation's heroes. By all indications he dedicated his life to caring for others, particularly veterans. He wanted to make a difference and he did. As evidenced by the countless coworkers, veterans and families who have come forward with stories about his compassion and his positive impact on their lives.

Alex loved his job. He loved his family. He loved his country. That's why he was on the streets of Minneapolis last Saturday morning. He was protesting and documenting what he saw, and what many of us see, as unlawful and unnecessary assault on our communities. And after coming to the aid of someone who was assaulted, a woman who was struck by masked federal agents, he was pepper sprayed, tackled to the ground, beaten, and shot in the back multiple times, while lying unarmed and posing no threat. As we come together today, I hope the memory of Alex Pretti will inspire us to do better for our veterans, for our country, and their families.

Mr. Secretary, I appreciate your being here. I regard your appearance as overdue, if I may say so, with all due respect. I respect that there are ways to reduce our bureaucracy at VHA, to improve the quality and timeliness of care for veterans, and I think you will find support on both sides of the aisle for that goal.

I have concerns about the potentially negative impacts of the reorganization on frontline employees. And how restructuring the nation's largest health care system will be impossible without dedicated, experienced staff. In human resources, I.T., finance, resource management, operations and clinical leadership. I want to know what the implications and the impact for those resources will be as a result of this reorganization. And I welcome this conversation. I really welcome your being here. And I will say again, with all due respect, there has been too little conversation and too little responsiveness on the part of the V.A. to questions that have been asked on both sides of the aisle and requests for information that we have made.

I hope we are turning over a leaf. And beginning a new chapter. As you may know, I prepared a report on this first year with facts and figures about the results of cuts in workforce, cancellation of contracts, reduction in force, a lot of it the remnants of the DOGE deluge and its impact on the V.A. and so many other functions of government. And if anyone in the V.A. disagrees with the findings and conclusions of that report, I hope we will be given facts and information.

That is the coin of the realm in the Congress. That is the way we do our job. And you may recall -- no doubt you do -- that past secretaries of the V.A. on both sides of the aisle have not only provided that kind of information but hosted substantive conversations. For example, with the four corners leadership on a regular basis I have participated in them with Secretary Shulkin and Wilkie under the Trump administration, as well as McDonough in the Biden administration.

Nearly all of your predecessors have welcomed accountability and made concerted efforts to build constructive relationship with Congress, an approach that leads to better outcomes for veterans. And I hope that in turning over this leaf and beginning a new chapter, we can move forward to provide for more responsiveness and more facts forthcoming to our veterans, to the veteran service organizations that so ably advocate for our veterans, and to serve the common goals that we have and the bring us here today. Thank you Mr. Chairman.