Maggie Hassan Grills VA Official: If You Fire VA Staff 'Can You Guarantee' Service Won't Worsen?

yesterday

During a Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) spoke about the Trump Administration's proposed layoffs of thousands of VA employees.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to you and Senator Blumenthal for holding this hearing.

00:04A welcome to all of our witnesses. Mr. Engelbaum, thank you for testifying today.

00:09I have to give a shout out to Al Montoya, who led the Manchester VA Center with distinction

00:16a few years back, and it is good to see you again, and I thank you for your work.

00:21I also, look, this hearing is about legislation, and I want to talk about some of the pending

00:26bills before us, but I too want to talk about some of the Trump administration's recent actions

00:32and how they have impacted the Manchester VA and I think the system in general, because,

00:37look, as you were discussing fraud, I couldn't help but say, but, gee,

00:43the Trump administration fired the inspector general, who's the guy in charge of rooting

00:49out fraud, right, as they fired inspector generals across government. There are 24

00:55arbitrary firings just because people were probationary employees at the VA, not because

01:01there was any analysis of the kind of work they did or why they were hired to do what they did.

01:06I talked to a doc from the Manchester VA yesterday morning, and you know what she had to do in the

01:11middle of a really chaotic week in the Veterans Administration? She's a busy doctor. She had to

01:17send Elon Musk a list of the things she did that week. Talk about bureaucracy.

01:25So, there are a lot of reasons we are concerned. I want to drill down on those with you, Mr. Engelbaum,

01:30and then I hope to get to a question about one piece of legislation. As you know, the PACT Act

01:36became law in 2022, and it greatly expanded eligibility for care and benefits for veterans

01:41who were exposed to toxins. Since it became law, more than 200,000 veterans have enrolled for

01:47VA care under the PACT Act, and more than 2.3 million PACT Act-related benefit claims

01:53have been submitted. To serve these veterans, the VA hired more than 60,000 new employees

01:58to meet the increased demand for VA care and benefits. Since President Trump has taken office,

02:03though, the VA has fired 2,400 employees and now is planning to fire 80,000 more.

02:10Not only does this contradict the clear intent of Congress, it really does a disservice to our

02:15veterans. When you fire VA employees, veterans suffer. If you fire front desk staff, veterans

02:21can't schedule appointments. If you fire maintenance and support employees, hospitals and

02:24equipment don't get cleaned. If you fire benefits administration employees, claims get delayed.

02:30So, Mr. Engelbaum, can you guarantee that if the VA fires thousands more employees,

02:35it will not take longer for veterans to get appointments and receive care?

02:39Ma'am, Senator, thank you. That is absolutely our objective.

02:44But can you guarantee it? Are you confident now that firing people with an arbitrary number out

02:50there is going to make sure you're not going to impact their care?

02:54Yes. Thank you, Senator Hassan. We do not have an arbitrary number, as I was trying to explain.

03:00There is a planning factor out there. We have a detailed, about a four-month process that we are

03:06undergoing in reviewing our complete structure, our organization, in order to do just what you're

03:11saying, to make sure that all our resources are focused on our veteran and their care.

03:15So, I'm going to hold you to this. You are now guaranteeing that after you fire

03:23tens of thousands of employees, it will not take longer for veterans to get appointments and

03:28receive care. Now, let's go to, can you guarantee that if the VA fires thousands more employees,

03:33hospitals and equipment, all those things, the hospitals and the equipment will remain clean and

03:38safe? Yes or no? Senator, what I'm guaranteeing is a detailed, methodical look and review,

03:43a much-needed review of our structure to ensure that our manpower and resources

03:47are focused on our veterans and their care. So, you're not going to guarantee that.

03:51Can you guarantee that if the VA fires thousands more employees, benefits claims won't be delayed?

03:57I guarantee we are going to do a detailed, thoughtful review and focus our efforts on

04:04improving our service to our veterans. But that's not a guarantee because you don't

04:08know what's going to happen, but you're already naming the number of employees you're going to

04:12reduce. We are going to watch what you're doing and I will echo Senator Blumenthal's request for

04:18the written plan, the metrics you are using and the reasons you think that this kind of mass firing

04:26is going to result in improved efficiency. As you may know, New Hampshire does not have

04:33a full-service VA hospital. In 2023, then-candidate Trump visited New Hampshire and promised a brand

04:41new, state-of-the-art VA hospital for the Granite State, saying that we would no longer be without

04:46a full-service facility. Now it seems to me that if you are building a new full-service hospital,

04:51you're going to have to hire people to help provide new services. So is the VA going to hire

04:56contractors and employees to build and work in the new facility President Trump promised Granite

05:01Staters, or is the plan to cut resources and hope that we don't notice? The plan, Senator, is to

05:09ensure that we focus all of our resources as much as we can on the direct care of our veterans.

05:14We have grown exponentially over the past decade or more. We have increased our budget immensely,

05:20but our performance has gone down. Right, because we're helping a lot more veterans,

05:24and we have to stretch to reach that goal, and there is work to be done. I am right with all

05:29my colleagues. This has been a bipartisan effort. We want the best care possible and the best

05:34services possible for our veterans, and we have work to do. We need to invest in new systems,

05:39which, by the way, it has not always been easy to get bipartisan support throughout the federal

05:44government for doing that. But being arbitrary, and as the head of VFW said last week, using a

05:52meat cleaver instead of a scalpel is not the way to do this. So I'm going to hold the President

05:59to his promise for a new full-service VA center in New Hampshire. I'm going to insist that it be

06:06properly staffed, and I'm looking forward to seeing written documentation and an analysis

06:12that indicates that things will be better off after you take staffing back to 2019 levels in

06:18spite of the new people we are helping with the PACT Act. I will be looking for that analysis

06:23because right now it's not adding up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Maggie Hassan Grills VA Official: If You Fire VA Staff 'Can You Guarantee' Service Won't Worsen?

Category

Transcript

Recommended