Sen. Angus King (I) raised questions regarding proposed staffing cuts at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) hearing Wednesday.
During this exchange, Sen. King asked Executive Director of the Office of Rural Health in the Veterans Health Administration Dr. Peter Kaboli and Director of the VA Oklahoma City Health Care System Wade Vlosich about a proposal to cut 10,000 full-time employees from the federal Veterans Administration (VA).
According to King, there is data suggesting that the VA is actually in need of increased staffing at this time in order to keep up with rising demand, especially in rural areas.
King also emphasized to Ryan Heiman — the Deputy Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration Member Services — the importance of providing reliable transportation options for veterans in rural Maine seeking to access health care services.
“Now, I am confused about personnel,” King said to Dr. Kaboli and Vlosich. “We’ve seen a report that over the next five years you’re going to have to hire 21,000 new people to keep up with expected growth.”
“One of the facilities, coincidentally, anticipating the most growth is Togus, the veteran’s hospital in Augusta, Maine,” continued King. “They need to hire nearly 1,800 new staff.”
“But then, Secretary McDonough is talking about zero growth, and then your budget calls for cutting 10,000 FTEs. I’m confused, are we going hire the people we need or not,” King questioned.
In response, Kaboli suggested that the plan is to engage in “strategic hiring” to ensure that full-time employees and budgetary resources are being utilized “in the right places.”
“We’ve had a lot of discussions over the last couple days specifically about this,” Kaboli said. “The word ‘strategic’ came up a lot. You know, how we are doing strategic hiring and making sure we are using the [full-time employees] and the budget we have in the right places.”
“And so, over the next, I’m guessing, weeks and months, we will be looking at this very carefully to decide where we need to put the resources and where we need to put the people,” Kaboli continued. “Because you’re right, it doesn’t really compute when you say you need more people but then we are keeping [full-time employment] even.”
“At the local level,” Vlosich added, “what we are working with our [Veterans Integrated Services Networks] and with national office on — for those areas that are growing, they are allowing us to move around our [full-time employees]. So, we are recruiting [full-time employees] and we are still doing that.”
King responded by saying that if they “are rationalizing the organization” he has “no problem with that, as long as we don’t end up with less service.”
During this same hearing, King highlighted for Heiman the importance of ensuring that veterans in rural areas have access to reliable transportation.
“Mr. Heiman, in rural states, like Maine, access, transportation is a huge issue,” King said. “A little homely example, the town of Caribou, which is way up in the northern Maine, you had a contract deal to bring one veteran down for dialysis.”
“They put somebody on the staff to do that kind of driving and it saved $7,000 in a month. Saved the Veterans’ Administration,” King explained. “So, I hope you will think about where and when additional staff to provide this kind of transportation can really make a difference.”
Heiman went on to provide additional information on this program, agreeing with King’s assessment of its importance and describing the Administration’s plans to expand such offerings to more locations throughout the country.
“We do have the program you’re referencing at 128 VA Medical centers,” Heiman said. “There are over 1,000 vehicles in the fleet that are providing similar-type services.”
“I would also reference that this was included in the President’s budget submission for FY24 in relation to the Highly Rural Transportation Grant Program — in relation to the highly rural transportation grant program,” said Heiman.
“This program is something that is critical to highly rural areas,” Heiman continued. “Our proposed change is to increase and expand — it’s currently available to 25 states for the county level — to expand it to 50 states that would have access to this. The other expansion is that the eligibility criteria would include tribal and county [Veterans Service Organizations], which is also extremely important.”
“We will be talking with them in the next panel,” King replied. “Transportation is really important. We are in a large state duel here — I see two of my colleagues — to give you an idea of how tall Maine is, Caribou, which I mentioned, to Portland, Maine, our principal city — Portland, Maine is halfway between Caribou and New York City.
“It’s a long distance to get to the help that’s there,” King concluded.
Click Here to Read Sen. King’s Full Press Release
Earlier this month, King questioned VA Secretary Denis McDonough on the proposed staffing cuts addressed Wednesday, pressing him to justify the reductions in the face of increased demand for services.
“How do we be confident in this committee that we are not sacrificing the quality of service to our veterans if we are reducing staff at the same time demand is going up?” King asked.
In response, McDonough said that while he believes the budget agreement is “generous” to the VA, “it does force some choices on [them].”
McDonough went on to explain that “because of the strength of hiring in the last couple years,” they are “better sourced with clinicians.”
Around this same time, Sen. Susan Collins (R) also questioned McDonough on potential funding opportunities for financially troubled state-run veterans’ homes, as well as on the provision of transportation for veterans in rural areas seeking medical care.
During her exchange with Secretary McDonough, Collins pointed out that Maine not only has one of the largest per capita veteran populations in the country, but is also the oldest state in the nation, suggesting that this combination of characteristics contributes to “why our state veterans’ homes are so important.”
Collins went on to argue that despite the fact that the VA increased its per diem rates in 2023, this “has not kept pace with rising medical costs.”
In response, McDonough explained that the VA has prioritized funding for state-run homes, making bigger investments in these facilities compared to those that are commercially run.
When Collins broached the topic of transportation to medical care for rural veterans, McDonough mentioned that he had “been studying up on this” and had “some ideas” on which he wanted to “work with” Collins.
he’s confused alright!
“When Collins broached the topic of transportation to medical care for rural veterans, McDonough mentioned that he had “been studying up on this” and had “some ideas” on which he wanted to “work with” Collins.”
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