{"id":31497,"date":"2025-03-24T16:19:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T16:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/03\/24\/senate-democrats-plan-shadow-hearings-on-controversial-va-cuts\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:20:38","slug":"senate-democrats-plan-shadow-hearings-on-controversial-va-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/fedlife\/2025\/03\/24\/senate-democrats-plan-shadow-hearings-on-controversial-va-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats plan \u2018shadow hearings\u2019 on controversial VA cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Democrats are planning \u201cshadow hearings\u201d in the coming weeks to highlight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/11\/gop-senators-eye-legislative-guardrails-as-va-prepares-mass-job-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Veterans Affairs staffing plans<\/a> and policy changes that they insist will severely curtail services for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow more than ever, we need to sound the alarm and hear directly from the veterans and VA employees impacted by Musk-Trump\u2019s heartless and heartbreaking cuts, freezes, and firings,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/03\/senator-invites-fired-inspector-general-as-guest-for-trump-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal<\/a>, D-Conn., said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHearing from veterans and impacted stakeholders firsthand is the first step toward holding this administration accountable for their reckless and lawless directives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blumenthal and other Democratic lawmakers have been fiercely critical of President Donald Trump, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2025\/03\/06\/va-secretary-insists-massive-staff-cuts-needed-to-refocus-department\/\" target=\"_blank\">VA Secretary Doug Collins<\/a> and businessman Elon Musk for a series of announced and leaked policies regarding reforms within <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/10\/stopgap-budget-bill-includes-extra-funds-for-military-va-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2025\/03\/17\/va-leaders-roll-back-policy-ensuring-medical-care-for-transgender-vets\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP25060007132690.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA leaders announce end to all transgender-related care for vets<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Department leaders promised to continue to provide necessary care to transgender veterans even after the rule changes.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department dismissed nearly 2,400 individuals as part of a probationary employee purge earlier this year but was forced to bring back most of them as their job status remains in legal flux. Collins has said he wants to scale back the VA workforce to 2019 levels, which would involve eliminating more than 80,000 positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats on the Senate veterans policy committee have petitioned for hearings on those potential staff cuts plus other contract cancellations and new department policies. But thus far, they have been rebuffed by Republican leadership of the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shadow hearings \u2014 unofficial meetings that will be presided over by Democratic lawmakers \u2014 will invite employees impacted by staffing cuts and other outside critics of the department. The first will be held on April 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blumenthal in a statement said that Collins has been invited to come speak at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collins, who was sworn into office in early February, has been publicly critical of Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks, accusing them of manufacturing controversy and stoking fears amid needed changes at the VA bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a social media post last week, he wrote that \u201cthose saying more money and more employees are the only ways to improve veterans\u2019 health care and benefits are the same people who\u2019ve stood by and watched for years as VA struggled with waste, wait times and backlogs. We\u2019re going to try something different: we\u2019re going to actually fix things!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee has held seven hearings so far this year, but none directly on proposed changes at the department. Two have been confirmation hearings, including one for Collins. Two others have been on pending legislation, and three were annual legislative presentations from veterans advocacy groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The committee is generally collegial but remains divided along partisan lines when it comes to legislative votes and support for nominees. Blumenthal voted to confirm Collins to his Cabinet post, but has said in recent weeks that he regrets that decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The move comes as VA Secretary Doug Collins has accused Democrats of creating panic over planned department reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":11,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[55,11,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3294],"class_list":["post-31497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-fedlife","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ISZQEGS75ZETFPI2TGJ7BWS754","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/24\/senate-democrats-plan-shadow-hearings-on-controversial-va-cuts\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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