Helping veterans, with an assist from counties, is ‘priority number one,’ VA secretary says

Key Takeaways

“A new day is dawning” at the Department of Veterans Affairs — one in which officials from all levels of government and political parties must work together to best serve America’s veterans, Doug Collins, the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, told NACo members March 3 at the Legislative Conference General Session. 

County officials can “touch more lives than any member of Congress or any governor,” because they see their constituents every day — they’re their neighbors, Collins said. That’s the kind of connection and outreach the VA is missing to ensure that veterans access the benefits they’re entitled to, he said. 

“We need better ‘touches,’ if you would,” Collins said. “And I need your help to do that, because I can’t do that from my desk. I can give instructions, I can help every way I possibly can, but we’ve got to understand that change is necessary if we’re going to provide what we’re supposed to at the VA. 

“And that means that working with counties, working with states, and working across our government is going to be priority one … We are better together.”

It’s time to put the ‘veteran’ first at the VA — and to do that, government officials must work to solve problems instead of merely acknowledging they exist, according to Collins.  

“I think it is time for those of us who are in public service to go from immediately saying ‘no’ to try to find ‘yes,’ to those times that we say, ‘Well, there’s a possibility’ instead of an impossibility,” Collins said. “We’ve got to take the time to believe that people are our greatest assets, and no matter where they come from, what their background is, what they may believe, that at the end of the day, government is about service, government is about other people.

“And at the VA, we have no greater constituency, we have nothing else except the great men and women who have served our country honorably and have earned the benefits that Congress and the president have said that they deserve.”

Working across levels of government — and party lines — is important to do the best work possible for Americans, said Collins, a former congressman who represented Georgia’s 9th congressional district. During his time in Congress from 2013 to 2021, Collins co-authored the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform law, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). 

“Most of you would never think a conservative from North Georgia would’ve worked with the Democratic side on that bill,” Collins said. “But right now, there are men and women who are getting out of prison, getting the training they need, so that they can come back to your county, your home, with job skills, getting over their mental health issues and addiction and being able to be productive citizens in the United States — that’s the kind of collaboration we’re talking about.”

In the last four years, the VA grew by $130 billion and over 80,000 employees, yet it currently has a 250,000 backlog of cases of veteran benefits, according to Collins. 

“It tells me that there may be more of an emphasis on the VA as a building and an operation than it was on the veterans that we’re supposed to serve,” said Collins. “I’m going to get in there and fight for those that I serve with. I’m a Navy veteran. I’m a 23-year, currently, United States Air Force colonel, United States Air Force Reserve chaplain, who has served in Iraq and knows what to get done. 

“Not only do I speak ‘[Capitol] Hill,’ I speak veteran. Not only do I speak ‘[Capitol] Hill,’ I speak communities. I speak to getting people the help that they have earned, and also letting them have a choice on where they want to get it.” 

Within the past year alone, the VA spent more than $588 million on suicide prevention and nearly $2.3 billion on mental health treatment (along with treatment for co-occurring disorders, such as substance use), yet roughly 17 veterans still die, a day, by suicide, according to Collins. It’s time to reassess how funding can be used to best serve veterans and their needs, he said.

“It’s time to change the model, it’s time to ask better questions,” Collins said. “… This town, in the last four to five weeks, the new administration is rolling up our sleeves, getting to work and helping you not only do your job better, but us do ours better, for this country and this nation, because we can’t look back.”