The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday simply superior Doug Collins’ nomination to be the secretary of Veterans Affairs, setting him up for a full Senate vote that’s more likely to be uncontentious.
The panel voted 18 to 1, with the lone “no” vote coming from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who mentioned Collins’s plans for the VA had been “not in line” with what she believed was proper for veterans throughout the nation.
Amongst her issues was the potential for Collins to overturn a Biden administration rule that enables the VA to offer abortions to veterans for a being pregnant ensuing from rape or incest, or when the lifetime of a pregnant girl is in danger – even in states the place it has been largely outlawed.
Collins, a former Georgia congressman, Navy veteran, Air Drive Reserve chaplain and former pastor, throughout his affirmation listening to didn’t decide to upholding the two-year-old rule after being questioned by Hirono.
“It is something that has been looked at here as what the law actually says, and the original law from 1992 says the VA does not do abortions. Two years ago, that was a decision that was looked at and decided. I will tell you this, we will be looking at that issue when I get in there to confirm that the VA is actually following the law,” Collins mentioned on the time.
However Collins acquired help from the panel’s rating member, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who mentioned he was impressed by lots of his solutions and commitments to veterans throughout his nomination listening to, notably across the enlargement of the Pact Act — which expands VA well being care and advantages for veterans uncovered to burn pits and different poisonous substances — in addition to upgrading the VA amenities and stopping veterans homelessness and suicide.
“I’m hopeful he’ll be the kind of advocate that we really are going to need in this era when the challenges will be greater than ever before fiscally, and the pressure to scale back to cut costs, to pursue harmful policies that may negatively affect our veterans will also be greater,” Blumenthal mentioned forward of the vote.
One of many federal authorities’s largest businesses with greater than 400,000 staff, the VA has been battling increasing its well being care supply system. Main prices and lengthy wait instances for take care of former service members has been on the forefront of its struggles, which Collins pledged to deal with ought to he be confirmed.
“At the end of the day, the veteran is getting taken care of. VA care is going to happen. . . [but] there’s different expressions of how we make it better. We don’t do the same things 40 years ago that we still do today,” Collins mentioned. “Our newer veterans deserve every access to finding care where they can.”
Collins’s nomination is about to be simply handed by the total Senate, with a vote anticipated to come back subsequent week.
