Veteran Affairs Secretary and Gainesville native Doug Collins came on WDUN’s “The Martha Zoller Show” Monday to speak about his initiatives in his new role.
“It’s the issue of homelessness and suicide, which are prevalent and that we have spent a lot of money at the VA but are not making the progress that we need to make,” Collins said.
Collins added that there is $3-billion in the VA budget for homelessness, but there are still roughly 40,000 homeless veterans.
Collins also said that everybody is claiming he’s “cutting into VA” and that “it’s going to be terrible.”
It is important to note that on the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) website, the VA is listed over 50 times under contracts cut.
“Let me just reiterate some facts … programs and operations have serious vulnerabilities for fraud, waste, and abuse in management,” Collins said. “Our mission is the veteran.”
Collins added that $130-billion and 80,000 employees have been added to the VA over the last four years.
“We’re going to start answering and giving solutions instead of trying to do the same old line,” Collins said.
Collins closed saying that their technology is “nowhere” where it needs to be, but that they are getting it back on track.
