WASHINGTON — Democrats on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Tuesday aired grievances over President Donald Trump’s sweeping order to freeze federal funding, a move that began to gut health care programs essential to the VA’s $300 billion budget.
“I’m getting emails from health care groups in Connecticut whose funds have been frozen,” said Sen. Richard Blumnethal (D-Conn.), the committee’s ranking member, said at the hearing. “We’re talking here about community care potentially getting chaos and confusion as a result of this freezing of funds.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget first sent a private memo to federal agencies late Monday night, freezing all federal aid, including grants and public loans. Trump also issued a federal hiring freeze on Friday, potentially preventing several critical health care roles from being filled in an already understaffed VA.
During Tuesday’s committee hearing, Democratic lawmakers were quick to blast the president’s latest salvo of executive actions in his second week back in the White House.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran, cited likely impacts to veterans in her state who rely on VA resources such as community-based suicide prevention efforts, rural veterans telehealth and transportation services. She also worried that staff shortages would not be filled for nurses and aides at veterans homes.
“I hope that my Republican colleagues and the courts have the spine to stand up to Trump in the face of this cruel, chaotic and unconstitutional order that hurts everyday Americans,” said Duckworth.
Republicans failed to defend Trump’s actions, however they tried to steer the topic towards the VA’s long standing problems.
“The Veterans Health Administration is the largest hospital system in the country. Why do you think the VA is so bureaucratic?” said Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), in a question to the panel of speakers.
Tuesday’s hearing was meant to seek strategies to improve the VA’s Community Care Network.
The initiative, first established in 2018 as an outgrowth of the VA to administer further community and private care options for veterans, had since been mired in troubles. Program members complained of long wait times, inconsistent quality care and eligibility confusion, among a host of other issues.
“After leaving the military, I sought mental health care through the VA,” Eric Golnick, a U.S. Navy veteran, told the committee. “I was fortunate to see a psychiatrist relatively quickly, but it took over a year to see a therapist.”
Paige Marg spoke about her struggles to find a long-term physician under the VA’s health plan for her husband, a veteran who has suffered from intense depression following his end of service.
“It’s heartbreaking to see your spouse become a shell of a person to repeatedly ask for help to maintain prescription compliance for more than a decade and to not miss appointments, only to be discarded from the entity that should be providing treatment and care that he earned through his military service and sacrifice.”
In a rare showing of bipartisanship in the meeting, many lawmakers agreed that the VA’s community care networks required clearer communication, standardized practices and coordination between the two systems of the VA, its basic program and the community care network it funds.
Duckworth, who lost both legs in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade downed the helicopter she was flying during the Iraq War, has the VA’s program to thank for one of her prosthetic legs. Her other leg was from the community care network.
“So it’s really important to me that (the two systems) talk to each other, because otherwise it makes it very difficult to walk,” Duckworth said.
Committee leaders ultimately laid out that the future of any legislation for veteran care hinges on bipartisan support.
“This cause must be bipartisan, and it must be immediate. There’s no question about the need to speed, streamline and safeguard and access to community care referrals to the kind of providers that are necessary to prevent the tragedies,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said.
