Vets groups torch Dems for holding up key VA picks, including memorials chief, on Memorial Day
FIRST ON FOX: A slew of veterans’ groups, along with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, are criticizing Senate Democrats for delaying key agency nominations over what some have called unserious or “DOGE-type” concerns.
One top nominee currently facing the collective procedural roadblock ahead of Memorial Day is wounded warrior Sam Brown, a former Nevada senatorial candidate and Army captain who was burned over more than one-third of his body when the Humvee he was riding in in Helmand, Afghanistan, hit a roadside IED that incinerated its fuel tank.
He was nominated by President Donald Trump as undersecretary for memorial affairs, which maintains cemeteries and facilitates veterans’ burial ceremonies – about 100,000 per year.
A letter from about two dozen veterans’ groups addressed to Senate VA Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and caucus leaders was obtained Friday by Fox News Digital.
The groups note that they respect the Senate’s advise-and-consent role, but object to the current situation. They note that the VA has the fewest presidentially nominated positions and that other agency nominees receive overnight and weekend considerations at times.
“We will be happy to bring the senators coffee and donuts during such late night and weekend sessions, of course in compliance with the Senate’s gift and ethics rules,” the groups wrote.
Brown and all other nominees since April have been held up by Blumenthal and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. – but the lawmakers say their move is not personal and instead aimed to halt mass firings and other Trump-era actions.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, indicated that he would join the two Democrats, after a confirmation hearing for Brown, Marine Lt. Col. James Baehr for general counsel and Army veteran Richard Topping for VA CFO, was mooted in April by the procedural hold.
“We’ve had 2,400 firings so far,” King said, according to Stars & Stripes.
Vietnam Veterans of America, in a separate letter obtained by Fox News Digital, demanded Brown, Baehr and Topping be confirmed summarily.
“All three of these veterans received favorable reports following the April 9th nominations process from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,” wrote VVA President Jack McManus.
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McManus said that many Vietnam Vets are concerned about the hold-up and agree that Brown and the others are eminently qualified, blaming “two members of the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee” for “affecting services to our veterans.”
Another letter from the Independence Fund, which provides resources, including trackchairs, to severely wounded veterans, said a fully staffed VA central office is crucial to its mission.
Last week, when Moran again attempted to confirm Brown by unanimous consent – a voice vote that must have no audible objections – Blumenthal rose to block him.
“The chairman and I share a bipartisan commitment to putting our veterans first. . . . I think we also share a respect for Sam Brown [and] his service to our nation as a decorated veteran,” said Blumenthal.
Blumenthal, whose own service was criticized by Trump with the nickname “Da Nang Dick” after a Vietnamese province, said that Brown’s nomination lacked unanimous support in committee, citing a 10-9 vote.
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“This issue is bigger than Sam Brown. It is about information that has been denied to our committee and to us as senators. The secretary of the VA is actively working to undermine our bipartisan oversight efforts.
Blumenthal told Fox News Digital he had a message for Collins: “Before you hire new top VA bureaucrats, you should be rehiring the dedicated veterans you fired.”
“Secretary Doug Collins is denying us essential information that is necessary for our oversight, and we want accountability. All Americans, especially veterans, deserve votes by the full Senate on top nominees—not rubber stamp unanimous consents,” he said, adding Collins can ask the Senate to hold floor-debate on the nominees through regular order.
In comments to Fox News Digital, Collins rejected Blumenthal’s claims and lambasted the delays.
“Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if Senators Blumenthal and Gallego cared as much about fixing the department’s broken bureaucracy as they do about preventing wounded combat veterans from coming to work at VA,” he said.
“Despite their obstruction, we will reform the department to make it work better for veterans, families, caregivers and survivors.”
Gallego said he also does not object to Brown personally, and that he is instead seeking agency accountability – saying in a recent statement he wants to reverse “hack-job firings.”
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Gallego said Collins is “more concerned with three political appointees than the thousands of veterans who are going to lose their jobs and care.”
“I served this country and received care at the VA. I know how important it is for veterans. Abandoning them, like Secretary Collins wants to do, is reckless and un-American. Show Congress the plan on how care won’t be impacted. Anything short of that is political posturing,” he said.
In Gallego’s Arizona, the Phoenix VA hospital is letting go 800 employees, and a 2024 inspector general report found that the site already faced staffing shortages.
Recent surveys of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans show an elevated concern that VA cuts could impact benefits and health care.
Fox News reached out to King for comment for purposes of this story.