VA secretary greeted by demonstrators during visit to Asheville
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins speaks to reporters on March 18.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Less than a week after a raucous congressional town hall where Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards faced intense criticism over cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — a disabled retired Army veteran was kicked out of the event after causing a disturbance — VA Secretary Doug Collins visited the Charles George Medical Center in Asheville to try to ameliorate some of those concerns. Demonstrators outside weren’t buying it.
Collins began his remarks by acknowledging the fact that Asheville’s VA hospital is consistently rated as one of the top facilities in the entire system.
In 2024, for the second consecutive year, Western North Carolina’s VA system, with outpatient clinics in Forest City, Franklin and Hickory and the Charles George Medical Center as its centerpiece, earned a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on quality and patient care.
“One of the things that I'm emphasizing as I go forward here is, how do we take what is good in places like Asheville and Western North Carolina and make that something we can model elsewhere in the country?” Collins said.
A native of Hall County in upstate Georgia, Collins won three terms in the Georgia House and later four terms as a congressman. During the 1980s, he served two years as a Navy chaplain. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Collins joined the Air Force Reserves, again as a chaplain, and retired as a colonel in 2023. He was appointed by President Donald Trump last November and was confirmed as VA secretary in February.
Collins confirmed during a press-only briefing that 2,400 of 482,000 VA employees had already been fired; however, a leaked memo recently revealed plans to reduce the VA’s workforce to align with staffing levels from fiscal year 2019, targeting a workforce size of around 399,000.
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These reductions are part of broader federal efforts to decrease government spending and have raised concerns about potential impacts on services provided to veterans especially as newly eligible veterans under the PACT Act, which expands coverage to veterans exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits and other toxic substances, begin to seek care.
During the Biden administration, the VA saw significant increases in staffing, hiring 61,000 in 2023 alone. That increase comes as veterans made 116 million appointments systemwide, up from 113 million the previous year, according to Government Executive, which also reported new records in both the number of veterans seeking services and the dollar amount of benefits provided. Nearly 2 million out of 2.4 million claims were processed that year — also both records.
Collins acknowledged that 14 employees at the Charles George Medical Center had indeed been fired but snapped back against claims of further cuts.
“What I spend most of my time doing is fighting innuendo and rumor. That's what I've been fighting. And I've been fighting [everyone] from members of Congress in the House and the Senate to labor unions to people who have vested interests, even VSOs,” he said. “This is why I'm here to say, ‘Quit scaring my veterans. Quit scaring my employees.’ We got a lot of change coming, and we're going to work together to have it. But when you tell me we’re gonna lay off doctors and lay off nurses, that's not even in our consideration right now. I need more good doctors. I need more good nurses. I need more who are taking care of people on the front line. You know where we're going to be looking? At the bureaucracy layer that goes from my doctor to the central office in Washington, D.C.”
Among the 14 fired, Collins said, were an executive assistant, an interior designer and “also some stock clerks.”
Privatization of VA services, Collins explained, was also misinformation; like in other localities, the medical community surrounding the Charles George Medical Center simply does not have the capacity to accommodate the sheer number of patients that utilize the facility each year, he said.
“Can you imagine if this wonderful facility right here had to take all the patients that it had and they had to then put [them] into the system that is out there in Ashville, the surrounding areas?” Collins asked. “We would have a crisis here. So no [to privatization], but we can do a better job partnering. We can use our resources better.”
Another major concern for Collins, and the nation, has been the alarming rate of veteran suicides.
“We're spending $588 million on prevention — $588 million on prevention — and we're still staying between 17 and 40 [veteran suicides per day], depending on what number you want to look at. I don't accept that as a veteran,” Collins said. “I don't accept that. I want to find better ways, and I'll partner with anybody willing to help us.”
Collins rebuked claims he wanted to spend less money on veteran suicide prevention because the $588 million appeared to have little effect on lowering veteran suicide rates.
“I'm not sure where we're getting less money being spent — what I'm saying is we're spending $588 million. Are we doing it effectively? Let me make this clear. I'll foot-stomp this all day long. I want you to understand something. If I'm going to spend $588 million, I'll spend a billion to save one life. Hear me clearly … if $588 million is not being effective, then let's take the programs, let's take the outreach we're using and maybe redirect that $588 million to suicide prevention programs that are working. Am I making myself very clear there?” Collins said, agitated. “Because I don't want any misconstruing on that one. I'll fight that one all day long. We're not cutting suicide prevention, we're making it more effective.”
Outside, protestors began to gather along Tunnel Road more than two hours before Collins’ visit.
“I wouldn't use this word, but stop the bullshit and quit this talking about cuts and quit treating people the way they are,” said Larry Sorrells. “I met a guy the other day that just got out of the Marines not too long ago, had taken a job with a VA and he was probationary employee, so guess what? He got fired. He probably left another job to go to this job. That's a real kick in the face, especially to a guy like him. I'm sure he had a family or whatever.”
Sorrells is a Buncombe County resident and registered Democrat who was drafted into the Army, served two years as a military policeman and then worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 38 years. He’s also a patient and lauded the quality of care he receives at the Charles George Medical Center.
With him was Glen Meadows of Leicester, also a registered Democrat. Meadows said he’d received a Purple Heart in Vietnam and still receives care related to the injury. Like Sorrells, Meadows had nothing but praise for the level of service and the employees at the Charles George Medical Center, but was deeply upset about cuts to the system.
“If this stuff keeps going on, there'll be veterans die because you can't take 73,000 or 83,000 people out of the VA and keep up the quality care that we've got,” Meadows said. “What you're doing is going to kill people. It's going to end up with veterans being dead, that’s exactly what I would tell [Collins], and that's the truth. It will be beyond the shadow of a doubt.”
Joining the roughly 100 demonstrators outside the VA was Jay Carey — the disabled retired Army veteran who garnered national recognition after being thrown out of Edwards’ town hall on March 13. Seated near the front of the event, Carey hurled expletives at Edwards until he was removed. Carey, whose family lost everything during Hurricane Helene, accused Edwards of silencing him and not doing his job and. In front of the VA while waiting for Collins, Carey said that cuts to the VA could set an ominous precedent.
“We're letting the secretary of the VA know that we're not going to sit and roll over and just take whatever they want to do to us,” Carey said. “They're ending care for trans veterans. I wonder what's next? Is it going to be Black veterans? Is it going to be Latina veterans? Is it going to be disabled veterans that aren't going to be able to get care here anymore? I mean, where do we stop without them privatizing or ending the VA as a whole?”
Carey and other vets said they were disappointed they weren’t able to address Collins directly; however, Carey walked into the VA anyway, asking to attend the event. When he was denied, he said he sat in the waiting area and was able to catch Collins on his way into the hospital. Carey said he asked Collins why the VA was taking away health benefits for trans veterans, but Collins wasn’t interested in having that conversation.
“Vets are vets, regardless of how they identify or what their sexual orientation is,” Carey told SMN March 20.
Carey said he was then “swarmed” by police, who told him he was a danger to other veterans and that it was time to leave.
When asked about his newfound notoriety and political future — Carey had run for Congress in 2022, finishing third in the Democratic Primary Election — he said he had no aspirations “whatsoever” to run again, and that he was focused solely on a nonprofit advocacy group he’d recently founded, resistpersist.com.
