Senate Democrats are planning “shadow hearings” in the coming weeks to highlight Department of Veterans Affairs staffing plans and policy changes that they insist will severely curtail services for veterans.
“Now more than ever, we need to sound the alarm and hear directly from the veterans and VA employees impacted by Musk-Trump’s heartless and heartbreaking cuts, freezes, and firings,” Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement Monday.
“Hearing from veterans and impacted stakeholders firsthand is the first step toward holding this administration accountable for their reckless and lawless directives.”
Blumenthal and other Democratic lawmakers have been fiercely critical of President Donald Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins and businessman Elon Musk for a series of announced and leaked policies regarding reforms within Department of Veterans Affairs.
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The department dismissed nearly 2,400 individuals as part of a probationary employee purge earlier this year but was forced to bring back most of them as their job status remains in legal flux. Collins has said he wants to scale back the VA workforce to 2019 levels, which would involve eliminating more than 80,000 positions.
Democrats on the Senate veterans policy committee have petitioned for hearings on those potential staff cuts plus other contract cancellations and new department policies. But thus far, they have been rebuffed by Republican leadership of the panel.
The shadow hearings — unofficial meetings that will be presided over by Democratic lawmakers — will invite employees impacted by staffing cuts and other outside critics of the department. The first will be held on April 2.
Blumenthal in a statement said that Collins has been invited to come speak at the event.
Collins, who was sworn into office in early February, has been publicly critical of Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks, accusing them of manufacturing controversy and stoking fears amid needed changes at the VA bureaucracy.
In a social media post last week, he wrote that “those saying more money and more employees are the only ways to improve veterans’ health care and benefits are the same people who’ve stood by and watched for years as VA struggled with waste, wait times and backlogs. We’re going to try something different: we’re going to actually fix things!”
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee has held seven hearings so far this year, but none directly on proposed changes at the department. Two have been confirmation hearings, including one for Collins. Two others have been on pending legislation, and three were annual legislative presentations from veterans advocacy groups.
The committee is generally collegial but remains divided along partisan lines when it comes to legislative votes and support for nominees. Blumenthal voted to confirm Collins to his Cabinet post, but has said in recent weeks that he regrets that decision.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
