On this special Veterans Day episode, VA Secretary Doug Collins joins Jenny Beth Martin to discuss his mission to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs, cut bureaucracy, and restore accountability. Collins shares how President Trump’s directive to “take care of my veterans” is transforming the VA—reducing disability claim backlogs, improving healthcare access, and putting veterans at the center of every decision. He also addresses veteran homelessness, suicide prevention, and rebuilding trust in the VA after years of mismanagement. From faith to freedom, Secretary Collins explains what service, sacrifice, and patriotism truly mean—and how America can honor those who have worn the uniform not just with words, but with action.
In this Veterans Day edition of The Jenny Beth Show, VA Secretary Doug Collins joins Jenny Beth Martin for a powerful discussion on service, accountability, and restoring trust in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Secretary Collins shares how President Trump’s charge to “take care of my veterans” has shaped his leadership — from cutting red tape and removing waste to improving healthcare access and reducing disability claim backlogs. He explains how the VA is once again putting veterans first by eliminating ineffective DEI programs, empowering common-sense decision making, and focusing resources on care that truly serves those who’ve worn the uniform.
The conversation also tackles the toughest challenges facing America’s veterans — homelessness, suicide prevention, and the transition back to civilian life — and what the VA is doing to address them head-on. Collins discusses the importance of faith, community, and personal connection in saving lives and strengthening the veteran community.
Topics Covered:
Key Quote:
“You didn’t stop serving once you took off the uniform. We won’t leave you behind — not on the battlefield, and not in the community.” — VA Secretary Doug Collins
Listen now for a timely reminder that freedom isn’t free — and that honoring our veterans means standing up for them every day, not just on Veterans Day.
X/Twitter: @SecVetAffairs | @jennybethm
Narrator (00:14):
Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:18):
Today we honor America's heroes, the men and women who stood on the front lines of freedom, who answered their country's call, and who continue to inspire us every single day. This is Veterans Day a time not just to remember, but to reflect on what it means to serve, to sacrifice, and to stand for something greater than ourselves. As we pause to say thank you to every veteran, I'm grateful to welcome a very special guest, someone I'm proud to call a friend. I've known Secretary Doug Collins for many years. He's a man of faith, a man of integrity, and someone who has dedicated his entire life to public service. As a pastor and Air Force Chaplain, a congressman, and now as Secretary of Veteran Affairs, under President Trump's direction, secretary Collins has worked tirelessly to restore accountability, cut bureaucracy, and put veterans first. Today we'll talk about his mission to rebuild trust in the va, the progress he's already made, and what's next for America's veterans. To every veteran watching, thank you for your courage, your sacrifice, and your service. We thank God for you and we pray that our nation will always be worthy of your sacrifice. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for joining us today and thank you for your service to our country. It's an honor to have you on the Jenny Best show.
Sec. Doug Collins (01:37):
Thank you, Jenny. It's good to be with you
Jenny Beth Martin (01:39):
And happy Veterans Day. So today we honor the courage and sacrifice of veterans across the entire country. And your own words, what does freedom mean and why is it worth defending?
Sec. Doug Collins (01:54):
I think that's an easy one. If freedom means to live in a country that our founders gave us, that is free from religious persecution, free from tyranny, free from government, that is all intrusive. It's free from free to do what I believe God intended us to do, and our veterans have been at the forefront of that. It's not as the old saying goes, it's not the reporter that gave us the freedom of the press. It's not the others. It is the veteran that has done that because they have defended that throughout the years, and I've had the privilege of serving as well. So freedom for me is to live the true American lifestyle of knowing that we live in a country where we can be true to ourselves.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:36):
And why is it so important to defend that freedom?
Sec. Doug Collins (02:41):
Well, we don't want to lose that freedom. I mean, if you want to live in a totalitarian state or in a state of socialism or unfortunately too many in our country today, believe is actually good. It's amazing to me that so many young people today, Jenny Beth, are actually looking at failed policies that have never worked. It is just sort of fascinating to me that they're drawn to a socialist communist model that has never worked and we're here 250 plus years, right after two 50 years of our nation, which freedom has been the forefront. Individual liberty has been the forefront for us. And to not have that is something that, again, it's just hard to comprehend because when you look across the rest of the world where those liberties are taken away, where those freedoms are taken away, you have people who are oppressed, people who always look to America as the shining star of the world.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:35):
Mr. Secretary, president Trump gave you a simple charge, take care of my veterans. While it's simple, it's pretty profound. What are you doing to ensure that you are taking care of the veterans?
Sec. Doug Collins (03:47):
Well, I think that's the big issue here that we have is what does that mean? And unfortunately, what I found Jamie Beth when I came in was a organization that had become really good at the organization. And that doesn't mean that they're bad people, it just meant that the focus wasn't right. So the minute I came in and through my confirmation hearings, I made it very clear to one thing that the veteran would be the center of the va. The only reason the VA exists in any form is because we have veterans. Now, I know that sounds simple to most, but it's really profound when you look at it in the sense of what we do. Everybody has to have a purpose and the purpose of the VA is to take care of veterans. And so what we've began to do is leading on what President Trump said to do is take care of veterans is we've started putting them first in the ideal.
(04:31):
If we're looking to how we better do benefits and how we get them done quicker, we are saying how does that affect a veteran? Let me give an example. When I first came in, we had over 260,000 backlog disability claims over 125 days. We're now approaching 120,000 in just a little over five and a half months. Why? Because we put people resources and commitment to it to say these are things that help veterans. Instead of them dragging out disability claims, they're able now to get a quicker answer so they can move on with their life. It is also at the same time, we've also taken a backlog, a whole case log of over a million cases in the system to where we're around around 600,000 now. So not only are we taking the older ones, but we're doing everything quicker. Again, how does it affect the veteran?
(05:17):
They get an answer quicker. They're able to move on with their life and our VHA, that's our healthcare side. We have now made community care back the standard of being able to be used. We have a great and direct care system and we encourage all of our veterans to use our direct care in our hospitals in our clinic, but if there's a time that they need to go to the community, we're making that fulfill the law of the Mission Act. And we've even taken some steps further to make BMI our best medical interest, a standard so that they can get into the community quicker. We've taken out a secondary referral. We're just doing a lot of things that says the veteran, it comes first. And so those are the kind of things that I'm very proud of. But it takes, as you well know in an organization, it just takes refocusing to be accountable to doing what we're supposed to be doing. And that's take care of veterans.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:03):
So the va, it's my understanding there are over 480,000 employees. Is that correct? It's a lot of people. I had to look at my notes to make sure I had that right. There are over 480,000 people who work for you. How do you manage that and ensure that you're getting rid of duplication and waste while also continuing to keep the veterans at the center of the focus?
Sec. Doug Collins (06:28):
That's a great question. We're down actually to under 450,000 now. We've had about 30,000 since I got here. We offered an early retirement program, basically a couple in different ways they could. So we had about 30,000 to take that now. In doing so, we protected our hospitals, our healthcare workers, and basically we said, you're not eligible for this because that's our main focus of what we do. And our disability claims, we did sort of the same issue. So what we were doing was is saying a lot of this stuff that had built up around our organization is probably let's take a look and see how much do we need. And like I said, we've downsized about 30,000 now, 30,000 in and of itself is bigger than most cabinet offices to start with. So it is sort of mind boggling, I guess is a good way to put it, to realize that we're still bigger than the active duty army.
(07:17):
So outside of DOD, we're the largest agency. How do we take and look at our organization? Well, we're looking right now at doing a reorganization of how we handle our healthcare. How do we promote through Jim F? One of the interesting things that I found was how much duplicity action was in the system, and not sometimes that it was being overdone, but it was just being caught in a morass of non-decision. It would get passed up and then passed up and then passed up, and then we'd have the Camel Committee, what I call it, the camel comes out of the committee and nobody wants to talk about it. And then six to eight months later, you either forget why I was asked or they never get back to us. So we're streamlining a lot of that kind of stuff. And I'm taking the common sense approach, and I just told a group in our hospital this morning as they were talking about Veterans Day, and we're talking about a lot of things that if it's common sense, do it.
(08:09):
You'll never get in trouble with me for doing what is right and common sense, even if our regs haven't called up to where we need to be because that's where we need to change it. And I've given them freedom to do that. And it's been pretty amazing to watch our center directors start looking at things. I have a favorite question. I say, what are you doing right now that if you were just honest and nobody recording you say, this is stupid. I shouldn't be doing this. And it's amazing the ideas that have come in for us to change and we're changing those as quickly as possible and it's making it better for the veteran.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:43):
It's a pretty simple question that most businesses are constantly asking of their employees and they're working to streamline and make their businesses more efficient. So it's such good news to hear that you are doing this within veteran affairs, and I know it's happening in other departments throughout the Trump administration. Secretary Collin, you recently reduced, will you cut DEI programs and redirected that money to healthcare? What kind of message about priorities does that send to your entire department?
Sec. Doug Collins (09:19):
I think first and foremost, it goes to the simple fact that accountability is first and foremost. You're accountable for your actions. We have about a lot of veterans in our organization that are veterans who work for us now as well. And for veterans who come to the va, they're used to being in the military where you're held accountable for your actions. It's just a core ethos of what we do in the military. And so it was sort of antithetical to talk about DEI and an organization which focuses was on veterans. I mean, this is not the place that we need, that these kind of programs were effective and they were effective because I don't care who you are as a veteran, where your background from, what your belief system is or anything else, if you're a veteran, you've earned the benefit. But in our organization, we began to look at things that were taking us away from our effectiveness. This goes back to what I talked about earlier. So for us it was just moving away and getting it back to a meritocracy in the sense that we hire based on the best available people we can get, we promote you best on your ability to work and we're going to take care of veterans. We're not going to get into all the other stuff that took us away from that one central focus of saying, we're here for the veteran.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:29):
I'm so glad to hear you say that. And what would you say to the media and the people in Washington DC who often use veterans as props and ponds rather than looking at for what is in their best interest
Sec. Doug Collins (10:43):
Stop? That's the biggest thing I got to say right now is quit and you're going to have a secretary of him and myself. That is, we've known each other a long time and I've been on a lot of media, a lot of social media, and I'm just determined we're going to use every opportunity that I have. I think that I believe God places a lot of places, but he also placed me here with a lot of media contacts and a lot of social media availability to where I'm not afraid to go after those who lie about the va. I made things too very clear early on here, and I don't care if you're media senator or congressman, whoever you lie about the va, I'm going to call you out. You're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. And so if you're using veterans as pawns, and I see that so often they want to run out a Congress person or a senator will run out or a press will do something, oh, this is terrible, this veteran didn't get in two weeks, whatever.
(11:35):
Really, they're not doing anything. They're just yelling, so to speak. Or even VSOs who like to highlight the bad look, we're going to take care of our folks, but I'm also going to be truthful in what we do. And Jimmy Beth, it's probably a good time to say this. I need your listeners and viewers to something. We're a healthcare and our biggest part of our agency is healthcare. It is 90% of what we do, but we're no different from our home state of Georgia where you have North Side and Grady and you have Northeast Georgia. I mean, we compete with them. So it's amazing to me how the press and the Congress and others say, well, you're having trouble hiring doctors. Well, have you went home and asked your local hospital how they're hiring doctors? No, they don't want to do it because it's a political play to say, I'm on the side of veterans. Let's just get back and be honest. And that's what they sort of have gotten used to me because being on the hill for eight years, I know all of them. I know the game. I know what they're having to do. So I just don't play it and say, look, you're not going to be able to just criticize something without putting us into the context of what we do. And I think that's made a big difference. But if you want to use veterans as PAs, you better not do it. And I hear about it.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:49):
That is very good. Good message to send. And then speaking of healthcare, CMS just gave the, I just want to make sure I have it right. The VA hospital should just earn the highest rating with CMS. Why did this happen? What do you think it says about the improvements that are happening in the va?
Sec. Doug Collins (13:11):
I think it just says wonders for what we do. I think that is the big issue that sometimes the VA has always been looked at. Again, as this sort of going back to the previous question, sort of this whipping post will whip on the VA will give it money, and that was one of the things I experienced early on is that to solve the problems at the VA, instead of doing common sense leadership, they were just simply putting money and people at a problem and we saw the numbers going the wrong way. So we've put and changed that into the fact now that we're going to have accountability, we're going to have functions at work and moving forward that lends you to have good hospitals. And a five on the CMS scale is the highest that hospitals are rated. And we have the vast majority of ours are five and four.
(13:58):
Now, I will say that we do have some twos and threes. Now, interestingly enough, if you go into your own communities, I would be interested to see if most people in the community knew what the CMS rating for their local hospitals would be. Typically the VA in many states, we have the highest rated hospital in the state in several of our states, so I'm very proud of that. But I did tell our folks our leadership back in July that my standards are a little bit higher. Fives and fours are all that we're going to strive for in the va, and our twos and threes are going to move up to five and fours. And the way we're doing that is a way that should have seemed normal, but it's not. Everybody thought the VA hospitals were then by themselves standalone hospitals like they were startups. Instead of a part of 172 hospital network with 1200 clinics. I said, guys, we're going to start acting like the biggest healthcare system on the block. We're going to help each other. So if I have a hospital over here that's not doing as well, then we're going to get leaderships together in another hospital that is doing well to train them so that we can all get to fives and fours. That's my standard. The standards, fives and fours, twos and threes are great for the public hospitals, but they're not going to be for my veterans.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:07):
That's really good, Doug. And some people say that the VA is just too big to be able to fix itself, but you're proving with the things you're saying right now that it is possible to improve it and to fix it, especially when you're thinking outside the box and not thinking just like a normal bureaucrat, but thinking about how can you get to the goal, the fives and fours that you just mentioned, putting veterans at the center of care. So I'm very glad about that. Now, let's say a veteran goes to one of the hospitals today and they have a bad experience because that happens. It happens at every hospital like you just were saying no matter what. But what would you say to a veteran today if they're having a bad experience?
Sec. Doug Collins (15:50):
Let us know. Let the leadership of that hospital know. That's the quickest way, and I've empowered leaders at the center directors to change things that happen. Sometimes Jamie, it is a matter of experience and it's perspective it how many times have you and I both had bad days and somebody came up to us and the way we answered 'em, they thought we were mad at 'em or something that happens and then you have sometimes it's just honestly bad service, bad. A nurse didn't do something right, a doctor didn't do. So what we say is we're with the patient or advocacy folks that are in our hospitals to get it to leadership. You can always go on to my VA four one one and our call center. You can talk about those issues and we've got a crisis line as well. They can always call in, but we need to know it instead of just, and I'm encouraging veterans to do this, instead of just going online or social and saying, I had a terrible experience at the va. Well let us fix it. I think that's the big thing. Look, I won't apologize for anybody else's mistake. I mean, I'll try to help 'em get better, but what I can do is say, if you let us know, then we will actually be able to fix it and make it better for everybody, not just your experience, but for everybody that may have it.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:06):
That is very refreshing and I'm glad that you're going to do that. Now, I have read that you have said that the VA has to earn back the trust of veterans. How has it lost trust and what is it going to take to earn that trust back?
Sec. Doug Collins (17:20):
Well, I think it's a combination of things. I think it was a lost focus sometimes on putting the veteran first. We had community care, which was promised under Trump won that we were making the Mission Act so they could get to the community. But yet we had internal, especially the last four years under Biden, we had our VHA keeping people in the hospitals and intentionally not letting them go to community care. I think you go back all the way to 10, 12 years ago when we had this wait time scandals, people weren't getting the colonoscopies and things like that where they actually did pass away. I think some of it is media perception and congressional perception. If all you ever say is what's wrong at the va, then people will eventually believe it. And so a lot of that is just us doing our job, putting our head down, getting away from, as we talked about before, the DEI stuff, getting away from all the, by the way, there's only one flag, two flags that fly at the va, the American flag and the P-O-W-M-I flag.
(18:18):
We don't fly any other flags. We're not into flag waving. We're into being veteran serving veterans. But those are the kind of things that we got so called up in that we forgot about the veteran. And the veteran just simply wanted to be treated, whether it be in a hospitals or benefits or in the cemeteries, they needed to be treated with respect. That's how you change it. I'm one day at a time. I do a lot of podcasts. I do a lot of media and almost incessantly, and we put on media. Somebody will come in and say, well, I didn't get this, or This isn't happening, or This is just a bunch of hot air. You got to give me time. I mean, but what we are changing and people are noticing it, these hospitals are getting the fact that the secretary probably for the first time in a long, long, long time, I know senator directors by name. I know what they're doing in their hospitals. I look at a report every day on what's going in and I make comments. There's been very few interactions at the secretary level to the actual what's being done in the field as we have right now. They know I'm watching, and while they know I'm watching, they also know I'm getting on the tools to work and we're seeing better treatment. So it's going to just take a turn, but we're seeing a good turn.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:26):
That's very good. Now let's shift gears just a little bit. A moment ago you mentioned that there's a phone number for people to call if they're having trouble at the hospital. You also mentioned a crisis line. One of the things that the Veterans Administration does is take care of homelessness and suicide prevention with our veterans regarding suicide. What's working, what can improve? And is there anything that the general public can do to help ensure that we work to reduce that suicide rate?
Sec. Doug Collins (19:57):
They can. And I think the biggest issue that we have here is just taking an interest. We have several, what I call critical points in the death by suicide issue. We have it is 1722, whatever number you want to use. I actually most believe it's probably a little higher, unfortunately, because the way some of this is actually reported, those are deaths per day of veterans. So on Veterans Day, the day we're honoring today is Veterans Day. On a day like today, we will lose 1722 veterans today on average to death by suicide. That's unacceptable. And so what we've done is we've went into it because we spend a lot of money on preventative services, but we were seemingly only talking to ourselves. And what I mean by that is if you've ever been to, you sort of been to church and you sort of talk to everybody in the same fuse, you probably all believe the same way.
(20:51):
Well, and you say, well, that's a great idea. Well, everybody agrees, but at the end of the day, nothing changes because there's not an impetus to change our monies. And sometimes we're being spent on veterans who either already in our system are already affected by the va. But what we found out was 60% of the death by suicides were people who had never been in contact with the va. That was stunning to me. So we've changed up how we're looking at it. We're now going into other arenas. I'm going, I've been to nascar. We're going to major league baseball, football, we're going to UFC. We're going to anywhere these podcasts just like this. Say, Hey, the VA is here for you. You've earned the benefit. I hear so many times veterans say, oh, there's probably somebody needs that benefit more than me. No, there's enough for everybody.
(21:37):
Come take advantage of it because we can help. And mental health crisis and death by suicide is something we're trying to get people aware of. So if we were actually hitting the right audience so to speak, then we wouldn't have 60% of them not being any kind to touch with the va. So that's one of the things that we're trying to do with that. The other is how does the public help transition out of the military? And especially for communities, and I'll use this around our home state of Georgia, but it is effective to anywhere in the country, Columbus, Savannah, Augusta, Warner, Robbins, Albany, you got a lot of veterans who are retiring out. They get out and they stay because they like the state or they like the area where they were just at those first few years out is very much the hot point for those. If they struggle when they leave, maybe through experiences in the military or just adjustment back to civilian life, those first few years is when we need our communities to reach out as well and to make sure that as they come back in, they can find jobs, they can find places to live. That's so important. And then with us correlating that with the healthcare and getting them into band centers and counseling if they need it, that helps us move forward.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:56):
If someone's listening to this right now, if a veteran is listening to this right now and they are struggling, what is your message to them?
Sec. Doug Collins (23:04):
You've got help from me right now as secretary, we love you. We appreciate your service. No matter what you've been through or where you think you've gotten or how far you think you've fallen, there is somebody that cares and you can listen to my voice right now. I care. Get on. If you got to get my VA 4 1 1, you can do that. Go the other ways to get it, but reach out to somebody. Call your old buddies. This is something else too though. If you're here listening to me today and somebody that you used to serve with, or even if it wasn't in the service and you hadn't talked to 'em in a while, maybe you had talked to 'em for a while, but now it sort of fell off, call 'em. Just ask 'em how they're doing. That's the big key to all of this. So right now, you're not a lone, you join the service. I say this all the time to all the VSOs veteran services groups is you didn't stop serving once you took off the uniform. That honor and commitment to your fellow service members is still continuing after you take off the uniform. You can't leave. If we wouldn't leave them behind on the battlefield, we're not going to leave 'em behind in the community as well.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:07):
That's very good. And then there have been over $800 million that have gone to grants for homelessness. What is a homelessness problem regarding veterans? How are you going to ensure that that money is used to help solve that problem? And what else can we do to help when it comes to homelessness for veterans?
Sec. Doug Collins (24:28):
Yeah, this is an interesting discussion overall for our country as a whole, but I mean especially the subset of group of veterans over the years, veteran homelessness has went down while the rate of homelessness or the community has actually went up, but we still have around 30 to 40,000 across the country of homeless veterans. There's multiple rupo reasons why they're there. Some of it of course, is mental health issues. Some of it is job issues. Some of it is unfortunately dependency issues. So what we're using is getting them into transition housing. We've got great partners with our folks in the VA and our VA services through what's called a HUD VASH program in which they can get money to get into a roof and a shelter. We also have worked with, frankly, with tunnels for towers and others who are built out places for veterans to go. The big thing is getting them into it because if they get into our programs, then they have what we call wraparound services. So in case they're there and they do need help with mental health or medicine or they need help in addiction issues, we can get them the help that they need as they're being taken care of and getting them off the streets.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:44):
That is very, I'm glad that we're working to solve that problem. I think that one of the things that I just didn't understand several years ago was how much of a problem there is when it comes to, well, I had heard about suicide for sure, but I did not understand how much of a problem there was when it comes to homelessness for veterans. And I'm glad that the VA is working to try to improve that. You said something earlier about disability claims and that you're working to reduce the number of the disability claims. What's going on with disability? Is it because of problems that they encountered when they were fighting for our country or is it other problems due to their health just as they naturally age?
Sec. Doug Collins (26:33):
No, no. These are all service related issues. So it has to be tracked back to a service related condition to get the benefits that are out there. So that's something, for example, if you came out and you, I'm just using an example, if you were in a accident or you had an explosion, your Humvee whatever flip and you had a traumatic brain injury, you had a concussion, you had something that goes along or you broke a knee or anything, those would be service related conditions that could get worse over time. And so that's really what we're talking about there. And then you have of course the healthcare benefit of that that takes care of stuff as you get older. But the main benefit that benefits are paid out of is service related connection injuries that they're still dealing with. And this is also too G something that really is, I'm glad you asked the question because it's not because you probably know, and I want to clear this up a little bit.
(27:37):
You may know people that you know it all the time that are 50% service related disability or a hundred percent even service. But yet they still function. They still have jobs. They do that. This is not like disability. My daughter who has spina bifida, she's in a wheelchair, that's a disability that was from Merck. The disability is from service related are making them whole as we can for the service that they gave. So it's not like if you're a hundred percent disabled that you're laying bedridden. That's not the way this works. And so I just want people to understand that as we go forward, the Washington Post up here, even on Veterans Day seems to want to always attack veterans one way or the other. And they've been attacking veterans in this issue for a little while about fraud and others. But the real issue here is that Congress and the president and others over the years has said, these are the things we do to make you whole for what you've done for us. And we have a lot of safeguards in there to make sure that we're making sure nobody is getting away with anything or anything else. And it was really interesting that Washington Post article that I talked about, actually the ones they interviewed who were defrauding the system were either in jail or had been in jail and had to pay back. So it's like you're sort of proving our point, but you just want to take a whack it veterans. That's what we see up here all the time with the media.
Jenny Beth Martin (28:53):
Of course we do. The media is just such, they're so disgusting. Okay, so talking more about the disability, and I've asked from veterans who are supporters of Tea Party pries action for a few questions and a few doctors who work for the VA as well. So here's a question from one of them. The veterans are saying disability ratings and claim rules seem to keep changing and they're wondering why are there changes? And if you can simplify that.
Sec. Doug Collins (29:28):
Yeah, we can. We're looking at that, but part of it is just that diagnosis changes. There's care changes, there's just some of, but also some of the folks you have to understand we've had standards for disability that have been in place for 50 years. The same thing that would've affected a person's livelihood or interest 50 years ago at a certain level is just not the same as it is today. So it is a constant movement, but it's not a movement to get people away. It's just clarifying better what the disability actually means. How much is it affecting a person in that process? So that's really where a lot of that comes from and some of it frankly is also Congress deciding that they want to make presumptive conditions and other things going along with it that have added to that determination.
Jenny Beth Martin (30:27):
It makes sense to me and I hope it helps clarify it for the people asking those questions. Another question that they have, they want to know if there're going to be any plans for closing hospitals. You're concerned that it's difficult for veterans to have to travel far to get to a VA hospital?
Sec. Doug Collins (30:46):
There are no plans to close any hospitals. I don't have the ability to, although even what you may hear from the press or anybody else, we don't have that ability. It is sort of interesting though that a few years ago, Senate actually voted a hundred to nothing to look at a do an assessment of where our services are best needed and our facilities being utilized. Once they found that out, they were going to put together a commission to say, okay, maybe this in this area doesn't have as many veterans anymore. We could move that around. When that happened and came back, Senator Tesler, who was the chairman of the Senate VA basically killed the whole idea. So we have 170 plus hospitals that are still out there in clinics. The problem we have is just an honestly is we have some where veterans don't live there as much anymore.
(31:37):
There are four VS Cs of what we call hospitals in the greater New York City area, and there's not as many veterans in that area anymore. They used to be saying after World War II or after Korea. So we're still maintaining programs there, but it is a shift for us to make sure we're putting areas that like the Southern, basically if you sort of the whole southern area across that all the way to California, that's our growing area down there. Some of our other areas are not as growing, but they still get the monetary and they still have the same treatments. So we're just making sure that everybody gets the treatment they need. The other issue there though is we're actually, for those who don't or can't drive or can't get to 'em, that's where our community care program is actually helping them so they can get help there in the communities that they live in.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:28):
And then what updates should they expect to the community care program, especially for rural travel and wait times.
Sec. Doug Collins (32:36):
The biggest thing is access with that BMI standard that I talked about earlier, that should basically sort of overrides what used to be, how long it was to get in or how many miles they had to drive. Those are still there, but if the doctor and the patient says, it's best for me and my caregiver to go to this doctor here in my hometown 30 miles away, then they can say, okay, we're going to go default there. You can go and see that doctor there. Of course we pay for that and it is, we're just making it easier for that to happen. We are cutting down some of the hoops that they have to jump through that are all self-inflicted by the VA so that they can get there quicker. And we're also though, we have some new contracts coming out that is going to make our third party administrators who are supposed to help our doctors in the community get paid as they should, but also be able to help us with cost. Because in reality, it is more expensive for us to treat you in the community that it is in one of our hospitals that just stands to reason with anybody. So we're going to continue to allow that to be done, but we're also going to make sure that it mirrors what the rest of the healthcare industry does as well. And we can't ever get away from that. Right now we're sort of an outlier in that.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:51):
Alright. And then shifting gears just slightly, the VA has issued its 29 million, 29000000th loan for home loans. How does this program fit into the mission of the va and is there anything that needs to be done to help make sure that home ownership is available or more available to younger veterans? And does home ownership and that kind of stability help with some of the suicide problems in the homelessness that we talked about earlier?
Sec. Doug Collins (34:31):
Yes. The last part of your question is a definite, it does help. It gives stability, it gives them a piece of ownership. It gives them equity. It lets them build in their community and their homes. I think the interesting thing here is the VA home loan benefit is probably one of the most used outside of education benefits that we have. There's many people who don't ever use anything else with the va, but they use their home loan benefit for the interest rate and for how they get it going through. It's really good. Also helps with homelessness too, in the sense of people can get a permanent housing and be a part. So it is really a good benefit. I think it was one that was put on through Congress understanding that this is a service we're going to allow you to be able to buy a home.
(35:18):
Now, part of your question though is a bigger question for all of us outside of just our veterans, which are a part of the regular community, is the affordability issue of homes across the country. I know back home in Georgia from my area, it's getting harder and for, I've got younger kids, I mean they're in their twenties and thirties. I mean where starter homes used to be 150,000, now they're 300,000 and that's just almost impossible for them to get. So the interest rates on the VA loan help get people into homes, but I think you're going to have to have a lot of discussions with local and state governments in particular. It's not a federal issue. Please God, we don't need any more federal on this. But locals and state need to really get involved and say, how do we build homes, build town homes, put 'em in proper perspective so that we can get people affordability in their first homes to build some equity.
Jenny Beth Martin (36:19):
Yeah, I think that a lot of young people are feeling that pressure when they're trying to move into their very first home. It's very difficult right now in our time is running to a close. I'm trying to get through a few other topics very quickly regarding the government shutdown. What would use, I have two questions about this. The first question is this. How does it feel to watch the gridlock in Washington affect our veterans and what would you say to Congress when thinking about future funding fights and what should they do to protect veterans?
Sec. Doug Collins (37:02):
Well, the first thing I'd say is open the government. I mean, that's the obviously easy one right now. If you want to help veterans and then fund the government, VA is in a little different position than some of the other agencies. Our hospitals and our disability benefits claims and stuff are what's called advanced funded. So none of our hospitals and clinics are, they're open right this minute, please go if you need there. They're all operating as is. But it is frustrating because of a lot of the other stuff like the home loan issue that takes a little bit longer. Veterans right now can't get their education benefits as quickly or can't get 'em at all to get it started in our vocational rehab and education benefits, those people are on furlough. I happen to actually talk to a senior member of Congress just recently and they were saying, well, you can bring these people in and just keep this stuff going.
(37:52):
And I said, I reminded them, I said, you're asking me to come in and tell them to come in and work for no money? I said, you're asking me to basically, I said, open the government, they'll be here tomorrow. But this, it really is a frustration to watch VA benefits not being able to, or veterans not being able to get answers to questions that they need because of the shutdown. And we're stuck down now to basically what's called the essential services accepted services. So it's very frustrating for us right now to watch veterans have to go through that. And it's amazing to me how Congress gets up in arms that there's a backlog of education benefits out there and these things not being done, but yet they're the ones actually, in fact, this was happened to be someone from the other party who voted to not fund the government. It's like, okay, you're wanting me to break the law where it says I can't spend money, I don't have on accept on accepted things, but you're wanting make everything accepted. That's just not a good way to do business.
Jenny Beth Martin (38:51):
No, and that is certainly rule of man and not rule of law. And we stand for lawfulness, not lawlessness. Alright. Shifting gears completely to you personally. You were in the Air Force, you were a chaplain in the Air Force and now you're the Secretary of Veteran Affairs. As a veteran yourself, how does it feel being in this position where you are doing everything you can to help people who also were willing to sacrifice as much for this country as you are?
Sec. Doug Collins (39:25):
It's sort of a culminating feeling to me. I mean, I'm finishing up, I'm actually still, I still got about another year left before I'm going to retire. But it is also sort of a culmination of career of working with in the Navy and the Air Force of being with people, serving with people, knowing what they go through, knowing what drill looks like, knowing what deployments look like going overseas, being in a war zone. I mean, it helps me because I know what they've been through. I know where they are focused on and we've had some secretaries, no offense to them that haven't been in the military. So I think it makes it a whole different perspective. And we've had some that have served in that. I think it gives us a different perspective of how to help. It's also humbling also to know that we're able to do this and to understand that the veterans that I've served with, the veterans that went before us, the ones that we stand on their shoulders about what they did for us in the past is being able to help them in their life, and especially in the later years of life as they go through.
(40:24):
So it's just, I appreciate the president asking me to do this. It's been the, I tell everybody all the time, I've got the best job in the cabinet. I get to take care of the best people in the world.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:37):
And since becoming a secretary, is there a single moment that stands out as one of the most moving moments to you in this position?
Sec. Doug Collins (40:48):
There've been several moments. One of the things that I do when I go visit hospitals is I don't stick to the script. And for those who know me, they're probably just laughing here. I don't do the Chamber of Commerce tours. I tell 'em, I said, I'm here to learn. I'm here to listen. I'm here to solve your problems. I can read about the good things you want me to do in the preread before I get here. So when they start taking me on tours, I have a real tendency to veer off the tour, if you would. And nobody's going to stop me because they're not going to stop me. And I go in and so we'll go by a waiting area and I'll sit down and talk, just sit down and introduce myself and talk to a veteran sitting there and they have no idea who I am.
(41:31):
Most of them, they just say, I'll introduce myself. And they say, oh, really? And then it'll hit and I'll just talk to 'em. But there's been a couple of times the chaplain part of me also gets in and being in the hospitals so much, I'll go in and I just get to sit with some of our patients and I get to sit with 'em and talk to 'em about life. Many of them, I visit our hospices and they don't have a lot of time left, and some of 'em don't have a lot of family. And I'll just sit with 'em and I get to pray with 'em. And one just the other day I was at, I heard this, it was in one of our hospices and I heard a keyboard being played and I didn't know where the keyboard was coming from. And come to find out, I was in a room just down the hall, and I went in the room and this older gentleman is there, army veteran, he's playing it.
(42:19):
And he just was a great guy. We began to talk and he just began to play. And it was one of those times he played an old, he said, I play old spiritual gospel. And I said, well, hey, you got an old chapel in here, let's go at it. And he started playing just a closer Walt would be. And we sat there and sang. He played, we sang. I'd put everybody out. I don't let 'em come in to those times when I'm with them. And that's just what it means to me. I get to sit at a big desk and I get to have a lot of employees, but at the end of the day, I'm only here because there's a guy like that sitting or taking care of him in his last days. That's all it means to me.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:01):
I'm so glad you were there for that man and that you're there for all of the veterans for Americans watching right now, what would you tell them to do to honor veterans today on Veterans Day and every day?
Sec. Doug Collins (43:14):
I think twofold. We always say thank you, thanks for service. And that's more, but find ways to actually do more. I mean, look at our communities. The nine 11 generation that GY generation of service member is suffering a little bit. They came through a lot, very different kind of wars. I was a part of that in Iraq. You have Afghanistan, you have others. Still to this day, I believe it's about true that only 2%. Now think about this, we had 20 year war and only 2% of our population actually were deployed in that conflict in any one. So it's a very small number, which meant that most deployed over and over again. So you've had a lot of struggles with families, you've had a lot of struggles with people coming in. I would just say do more than just say thanks, say, is there anything I can help you with or introduce 'em in the community.
(44:08):
Find ways to get them involved. They have great leadership skills. If you're an employer, hire them. They're some of the best workers you can have and going through. And then the other thing is, and this may sound a little strange because Pete is doing a great job at the Secretary of War and our Department of War, but some of the best thing is for young people. If you're watching this and you want to help a veteran become join, our country's always going to need more in the future, and we want to make sure that you get in. Pete will take care of you at the War Department. We'll take care of you later at the va.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:43):
Very good. And then the very last question, as a veteran yourself and as the Secretary of Veteran Affairs today on day, when you look at the flag, what does it mean to you
Sec. Doug Collins (44:54):
Home? It means home. I mean, I've been across the world in war zones and others as a military member, and when I see that flag, if it's on the side of a plane or it's flying, just, it just says I'm home and I'm a part of a country that is the freest country in the world to be able to do the things we do, to be a part of a country that everybody wants to come to, no matter what they say about us. If they're given a choice, most of 'em say, I want to come to America, and it's just home.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:31):
Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time and your service, not just in uniform, but in your daily mission To those who served to every veteran watching, we honor you. We thank you and we pray for you. We pray that God will bless you, that you will feel his presence today and every day, and that he gives you peace. Freedom is never free. It's earned by your courage, your faith, and your sacrifice. Thank you. I'm Jenny Beth Martin, this Veterans Day. Let's not just thank our veterans. Let's live in a way that honors them. God bless you. God bless our veterans, and God bless the United States of America.
(46:11):
Thanks for watching the Jenny Best show. If you enjoyed the show, go ahead and hit like and subscribe. It really helps us reach more people who care about freedom and the Constitution. You can find us on YouTube, Facebook Rumble, Instagram X in your favorite podcast platform.
Narrator (46:27):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.