{"id":1055742,"date":"2025-08-25T14:43:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1055742"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:43:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:43:41","slug":"icymi-house-veterans-affairs-committee-ranking-member-mark-takano-slams-trump-admins-shameful-abandonment-of-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-house-veterans-affairs-committee-ranking-member-mark-takano-slams-trump-admins-shameful-abandonment-of-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano Slams Trump Admin\u2019s Shameful Abandonment of Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In case you missed it, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs, Congressman Mark Takano, appeared on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UmG2U6Re6iI\"> Democrats\u2019 Daily Blueprint <\/a>today to discuss the progress achieved under the Honoring Our PACT Act signed by President Joe Biden and how, under Donald Trump, the Department of Veterans Affairs is firing thousands of qualified federal employees as part of a coordinated attack on veterans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"580\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1055743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png 1098w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png?resize=300,170 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png?resize=768,435 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png?resize=1024,580 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UmG2U6Re6iI&amp;list=PLbrp7CilEOGryKdfo2THM3E5uV4rNDnUc&amp;index=1\"><strong>WATCH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>You can find highlights from the conversation below:&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Trump and VA Secretary Doug Collins\u2019 cutting staff at VA medical centers:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/UmG2U6Re6iI?feature=shared&amp;t=168\"><strong><em>Ranking Member Mark Takano<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<em> \u201cI have never visited a VA facility that said they were overstaffed. They are always saying, \u2018<\/em>W<em>e are understaffed. We need more specialists. We need more primary care physicians. We need more nurses.\u2019 Never, never, never have I heard that the VA has ever been fully staffed. Doug Collins is boasting and bragging about all these cuts. It\u2019s meant that veterans are paying the price with longer wait times\u2026 Longer wait times means they can\u2019t get their appointments when they want to get them.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On what veterans are saying about the long-term consequences of cuts by DOGE, Trump, and Collins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/UmG2U6Re6iI?feature=shared&amp;t=319\"><strong><em>Ranking Member Mark Takano<\/em><\/strong>:<\/a><em> \u201cAt the VA, all [care] is coordinated. It happens all in one place. And we need to make sure that we take care of our rural veterans better. But long term, it\u2019s going to mean care is privatized. That is going to be a worse experience for our veterans. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cMore immediately, what the VA is doing is they\u2019ve cut access to reproductive health care for our women veterans. What I find particularly not just frustrating, but it angers me, [is] that the very women who stood up for your rights and my rights, who put their lives on the line so that we have our freedoms, they\u2019re getting their freedoms taken away. Their ability to get access to, say, a life-saving abortion when, say, a pregnancy endangers their life, the VA is reversing the ability for a woman veteran to get an abortion, in the case of incest and rape as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the gains that Democrats achieved under the Honoring Our PACT Act signed by President Biden:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/UmG2U6Re6iI?feature=shared&amp;t=549\"><strong><em>Ranking Member Mark Takano<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<em> \u201cUnder President Biden, we did even more. The Republicans did not want to do this, but we passed the Honoring our PACT Act. 34 Republicans voted with the Democrats when we brought it to the floor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cNow what did the PACT Act do? The PACT Act was the largest expansion of veterans\u2019 benefits in a generation. To date, six million veterans have been screened for toxic exposure. 1.5 million veterans have had their claims approved.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhat does that mean? It means that the federal government, our government, the American people, we are listening to veterans when they come in and say that they have an illness that is due to their service connection\u2026 When they\u2019re screened, it sets them up for when an illness occurs, maybe 10 years [later], when their body develops a cancer because of an exposure to a burn pit, they\u2019re going to have the peace of mind that their family is going to be taken care of, that their medical expenses are going to be taken care of.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>###<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In case you missed it, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs, Congressman Mark Takano, appeared on the Democrats\u2019 Daily Blueprint today to discuss the progress achieved under the Honoring Our PACT Act signed by President Joe Biden and how, under Donald Trump, the Department of Veterans Affairs is firing thousands of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - 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