ICYMI: After Trump Admin Refuses to Allow VA to Host Discussion on Women Veterans’ Health Care, Senator Murray Meets with Women Veterans and Advocates In Seattle
*** VIDEO of Senator Murray’s Exchange with VA Secretary HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee oversight hearing with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, pressed Secretary Collins on how the Trump administration’s mass firing of VA employes is hurting veterans’ ability to get the health care they need—from jeopardizing VA research, to creating new risks around the deployment of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to additional VA Medical Centers, which the Trump administration is insisting on moving ahead with despite persistent and unresolved issues at the sites where it is currently deployed. Murray also pressed Secretary Collins on new policies the Trump administration recently rolled out that severely limit Congressional engagement with veterans and VA for no legitimate reason.
“Secretary Collins, thank you for being here. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me yesterday morning about the new policies that you now have related to Congressional engagement,” Senator Murray began. “For all of my colleagues: this new policy will limit our ability to interact with veterans on a VA campus, as it did when I was denied the ability to host a veteran and provider roundtable at the Seattle VA. I’ll note, I have done that many times over my 30 years in the Senate. My staff was told it was a new policy which had not been put into writing at the time that I got denied. And I just want to reiterate my request, Mr. Secretary, that you share that newly written policy with every single member of Congress.”
“Senator, as you and I talked yesterday, this had been an unwritten policy for years that had been applied differently. I went back and checked it had been applied differently,” said Secretary Collins.
“I’ve never been denied before, I don’t know anybody else who has. This is a new policy, and I think it’s important that you have it in writing to every single member, so we all know that,” Senator Murray emphasized.
“It will be,” Secretary Collins affirmed.
“I’d also note that in our conversation yesterday, as well as in your responses to nearly all of the oversight letters I’ve seen, you are relying on this very broad explanation to everything that…‘everything you do is to ensure veterans receive the care and services they deserve.’ I want to take this opportunity, Mr. Secretary, to remind you the people on this dais, both sides, have the same purpose. Many of us have been doing this for decades. And oversight is both constitutionally required, and it is critical for all of us to do our jobs,” Senator Murray continued. “With that in mind, I would ask you to rescind the memo from your Chief of Staff, which allows him to personally sign off on any proposed or planned engagement with any one of the 535 Members of Congress, which really just stonewalls legitimate questions that we have.”
Secretary Collins responded, “Senator, that was a memo that was, that’s a mischaracterization of that memo. It simply was coordinating between OM and our legislative affairs office to make sure that our OM staff, who actually deal with the budget side, which you do, and our legislative affairs, were on the same page. Just as you wouldn’t want to in your staff talking to the same group and basically not being on the same page.”
Senator Murray pressed, “I have the letter, and it directly says that every request we have, has to go through your Chief of Staff. From our staff who want questions, from any of us who do, everything has to be rerouted up to the top. That is going to take forever. That denies us the ability for us to get the information we need.”
“We’ll make sure that all, you know—legislative inquiries, the stuff that you need—you’re getting the oversight. I agree with you. I served in Congress as well. Oversight is important. But also getting you good information is important as well,” Secretary Collins dodged.
“I appreciate that. So, is that letter no longer in place, no longer applies?” Senator Murray inquired.
Secretary Collins continued, “That letter is…to streamline information so we can get you, actually, information quicker.”
“Streamlined all the way to the top, so our questions are never answered. That’s how we all read it,” pressed Senator Murray.
Secretary Collins doubled down, “No, that is not the way the letter is written. So, that is not the way the interpretation is.”
“I would ask you to go back and look. Because again, we have oversight responsibility. We all take that very seriously…We need those responses, we don’t need weeks and months to go through some—all the way to the top and one guy sitting there deciding whether or not we get the information,” continued Senator Murray.
“Well, there is no weeks and months. And that’s, you know, the unfortunate part of the VA has been a bureaucracy issue. This is what we’re trying to actually streamline to get you information,” Secretary Collins replied.
Senator Murray made it clear, “I mean this: I’d like you to go back and look at that letter and remind yourselves we all need the information.”
Senator Murray continued by asking Secretary Collins about the how VA’s plan to fire more than 80,000 employees will affect the planned deployment of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to new sites, which VA is moving forward with despite serious and persistent issues with the system at the sites where it is currently deployed, which include two VA Medical Centers in Washington state—Joseph M. Wainwright in Walla Walla and Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane.
Senator Murray asked, “As you know, fixing EHR and getting it right for our veterans is about patient safety. During your hearing, I expressed my concerns about VA moving forward with deploying the new system at four additional new sites when it’s still experiencing very serious issues at places in my state—Spokane and Walla Walla. And you said that when it comes to EHR, you were going to ‘listen to our clinicians’ and ‘listen to our hospitals.’ Weeks later, VA announced plans to look at firing a staggering 80,000 employees this year. I want to know did you ask these VA clinicians and hospitals about how those cuts would affect future EHR deployments?”
“The issue of employment and EHR deployments are separate,” responded Secretary Collins. “We’re not looking—again, I can’t emphasize this enough, none of the reorganization that we’re looking at deals with frontline workers or frontline employees—”
“That was not my question,” pressed Senator Murray.
“So yes, we’ve included Dr. Evans, who runs our program, he’s been working the program for well over a decade,” replied Secretary Collins.
Senator Murray continued her questioning: “I’ve been very vocal, you know this, about VA’s troubling decision not to renew the terms of researchers who are working on absolutely critical projects and clinical trials for our veterans. There are planned trials that have not started, there are ongoing trials that have been stopped, and there are trials that have fallen apart due to staff layoffs. Yes or no, would you agree that clinical trials stopping would have an impact on the care for our veterans?”
“I think clinical trials are very important,” said Secretary Collins. “And the good thing about it is, when we looked at it, there were trials that were coming due that, just as they always do. I put a 90-day stop on that so we can examine and make sure that everything’s going good.”
“I understand, there’s a pause on this new policy. Has a decision been made about what happens when that pause stops?” pressed Senator Murray.
“We’re currently in the process of examining that,” replied Secretary Collins.
“So, clinical trials that are out there have no idea, they’ve got to wait 90 days and pray?” asked Senator Murray.
“At this point in time, like I said, some of those were actually stopped at the end, and…we’re actually keeping some in line so that they can continue, if need be,” Secretary Collins said.
Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has been a leading voice in the Senate speaking out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees and VA researchers across the country and Elon Musk and DOGE’s infiltration of the VA, including accessing veterans’ sensitive personal information.
Last week at a hearing on veterans’ mental health, Senator Murray pressed administration officials on the importance of transparency and communication with Congress and how the Trump administration’s mass firings might undermine care for veterans who have dealt with sexual trauma. In February, Murray grilled Trump’s then-nominee for VA Deputy Secretary, Dr. Paul Lawrence, on the mass firings of VA employees and VA researchers. After pressing Doug Collins on EHR and protecting women’s access to VA health care, including lifesaving abortion care, at his nomination hearing, Senator Murray voted against Doug Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary in early February, sounding the alarm over Elon Musk and DOGE’s activities at the VA and making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness is putting our national security and our veterans at risk.
Last month, Senator Murray released a report on how Trump’s mass firings at VA are already hurting veterans’ services and health care in Washington state and across the country. Senator Murray and her colleagues have demanded that VA swiftly reverse moves to cut VA researchers, and have sent multiple letters pressing Secretary Collins to sever Elon Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and protect veterans, their families, and VA staff from unprecedented access to sensitive information.
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