OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:42 PM – Tuesday, February 4, 2025
The Senate has confirmed GOP Representative Doug Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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On Tuesday, Collins was confirmed following a 77-to-23 vote — one of the widest bipartisan votes of any Trump Cabinet nominee so far.
Collins had served in congress from 2013 to 2021.
Last month, he also passed through the Veterans’ Affairs Committee on a wide bipartisan vote, with only Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) voting against him.
When accepting his nomination last November, Collins vowed to “fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned.”
Collins will now lead an agency plagued by previous budget cuts, millions paid to unqualified executives, and complaints from a large majority of veterans regarding excessive wait times for care, which occurred under the Biden administration.
It will also be his first time running an agency as large as the Department of Veterans Affairs. It has around 400,000 employees and 1,300 health facilities.
“I do not come into this with rose-colored glasses. This is a large undertaking that I feel called to be at,” Collins explained. “When a veteran has to call a congressman or senator’s office to get the care they have already earned, it’s a mark of failure.”
“I’m gonna take care of the veterans. That means that we’re not gonna balance budgets on the back of veterans benefits,” he continued.
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