***WATCH: Murray’s Q&A at nomination hearing *****
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing to consider pending nominations, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, questioned Cheryl Mason, President Trump’s nominee to be Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), on how—as a political appointee for President Trump and an advisor to VA Secretary Doug Collins—she can be trusted to serve as an independent and nonpartisan watchdog for VA, as is the job of the VA Inspector General. Under Secretary Collins’ leadership, VA is stonewalling members of Congress on critical oversight requests and has rolled out controversial policies to dramatically limit Congressional engagement with veterans and VA employees.
Senator Murray began by probing Ms. Mason on her time serving as a senior advisory to Secretary Collins at VA, including even after she was nominated to be Inspector General: “Ms. Mason, you did say on your questionnaire that you continued to be a senior adviser to Secretary Collins after you were nominated to become the Inspector General monitoring his agency. While you were senior advisor to Secretary Collins, what discussions were you involved in related to abruptly canceling contracts, or ending DEI efforts, or eliminating outreach to LGBTQ [veterans]?”
“At the time I answered the questionnaire, I was senior advisor to the Secretary. That role ended very quickly after I submitted that questionnaire,” Ms. Mason replied. “So as for your question as to those roles, the only roles I had with contracts were ensuring that the organizations that were in my portfolio knew that they needed to justify the contracts and ensured that they responded timely. I did not review contracts; I was not involved in those. As far as in the DEI situation, that was an Executive Order, and shortly after the senior advisors came in, they were followed by more senior advisors, and that was not something that was on my plate. That belonged to General Counsel and the senior advisor who was charged with EOs.”
“What substantive work were you doing if you weren’t involved in any of that?” Senator Murray pressed.
“My role as senior advisor was to look into actions that were going on in the administration—,” Ms. Mason said.
“But a lot of the actions that were going on in the administration that we know about were about ending DEI, about firing employees, about canceling contracts. So that was most of the activity that was going on there,” Murray replied.
“That was not in my portfolio. There were separate senior advisors assigned to that. My portfolio was looking at the way those organizations operated and how they served veterans, particularly VBA, because it’s such a large organization. There were challenges with the digital GI Bill, challenge with disability compensation backlog and inventory, with both the Board and VBA, challenges with loan guarantees. There were a variety of challenges within VBA that I was looking at,” said Ms. Mason.
Senator Murray followed up: “Let me ask you differently: What was your engagement with DOGE and the White House outside of the Presidential Personnel Office?”
“I had no engagement with DOGE,” Ms. Mason said.
“None, zero? No contact?,” Murray asked.
“No. The only contact I had was a swearing-in—I attended a swearing-in for a person who has since, I guess, has left the department in DOGE. That person, I attended the VA swearing-in. That was it,” Ms. Mason replied.
Senator Murray continued her questioning by asking whether Ms. Mason would Congressional oversight of the OIG. “As you know, Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight over the Office of Inspector General to make sure that they are properly conducting their role, so it’s really crucial, as you well know, that the OIG is transparent. If you are confirmed, will you provide us with a list of every ongoing OIG investigation within 30 days?”
“Yes, Senator, I will do so,” replied Ms. Mason.
“The budget for VA proposed the elimination of ‘unnecessary’ outreach activities. From a Congressional perspective, it is really critical to make sure that any canceled outreach doesn’t impact veterans’ ability to receive care that is necessary to provide. If confirmed, will you hold the Department responsible for conducting all outreach that is in statute or policy, even if the political leadership—meaning your former boss, Secretary Collins—doesn’t want to reach out to those groups?” Senator Murray pressed.
Ms. Mason responded, “Senator Murray, I will look into all those situations and I will see where there are statutory require[ments] and they will be held accountable under my watch as OIG if confirmed.”
Senator Murray continued, “Congress was very clear in 1978 when it passed the law governing Inspectors General. The law states, and I want to quote it, ‘each Inspector General shall be appointed without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity.’ Do you believe that an Inspector General should be entirely independent from the administration in which they serve?”
“I do,” Ms. Mason replied.
“Well, you were a political appointee for President Trump in his first term, and as we said on your questionnaire, you said you continued to be an advisor to Secretary Collins after you were nominated for this. Do you believe that this demonstrates the kind of nonpartisanship it takes to successfully execute this job?” asked Senator Murray.
“Yes, I do believe I have that,” said Ms. Mason, referencing her prior experience in VA serving under different administrations.
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 month 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.
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