Looking for common ground on VA overhaul

So you're new to the Senate this session, but you're not new to Congress

You've been over in the House. So you're used to having some of these conversations

I wonder just in the years that you've had here in Congress. I would say I'm not used to having these conversations

Most of the time, like, I've always, the question has been how much more can we do

Democrats and Republicans have always been aligned, and the VA and funding our veterans has always been a bipartisan issue

Sometimes we may, sometimes we wanted to spend, you know, $10 billion, and sometimes Republicans wanted to spend $9 billion

But there never has been a point where, like, you know what, let's just go and arbitrarily cut the VA

Let's just start cutting services. And without any regard to the actual livelihood and lives of our veterans, this is new

So it's been such a rapid shift under the Trump administration here. Do you think that that's something you can rein back in by telling your story, by telling the veterans' perspective

Is that something that you think, again, this is all happening in quick succession here

over the next few months as the budget process plays out, do you think you'll be able to talk to your colleagues and say

this is why the money is important, this is why the employees are important? Yes, that's my goal. Look, I know my Republican colleagues here care about veterans

They're just as patriotic as I am, and a lot of them have served. A lot of them have used VA services like I have

For some reason right now, they don't necessarily want to get into that fight, and so I'm hoping that I can encourage them to get into this fight with me

because if they do, they'll realize that there is hundreds of thousands of veterans that actually are with us

They believe in us. They understand what we're doing. And there's just, again, and there also is just no logical way that you can cut 88,000 VA employees

Meanwhile, by the way, we still have to be growing. So the cut is not the 88,000

It's also the fact that we're not even growing more than we're supposed to. And the future generations that are going to be affected by this is going to be harmful

And I think hopefully with time, I could get my Republican colleagues to join me in this fight

So what is the disconnect? Is it just the approach from the Department of Government Efficiency and this idea of savings first and everything else second Or are you attributing it to just a loss of keeping the eye on the ball from the administration Look I think it was it a combination of both

I think the Doge boys are a lot of Silicon Valley elites that have never served in the military

have no family that's ever served in the military, have very zero connections to the VA

and I think they look at the VA, it's one of the third biggest budgets in the country

and they think that if they can cut anywhere, that there's a way to cut. First they'll go for employees

and what they think is not necessary services, and eventually they'll go after benefits

and all because they want to have tax cuts. I think the administration, Trump administration

says they value veterans. I've seen them in the past. follow that up. When I worked with Donald Trump in his first administration, we did some good work

in the VA with the administration. But I think this time they have taken their eye off the ball

and I'm hoping that I can bring their attention back. Do you think that's where the public stands

as well? Or do you think the public is going to reject these things? Because there is that disconnect. There's a lot of folks who do just look and say, oh my goodness, $350 billion for

a government agency. That's a lot of money. I don't understand what it goes towards. It must

be inefficient. How much of that idea, that message do you think you need to take, not just

out to the White House, but out to the public? Well, look, I just had a veterans town hall

about two weeks ago in Sierra Vista. Sierra Vista is a military town for what you, because they're

very Republican town. And from what I heard from veterans is that, look, you could always improve

excuse me, you could always improve the VA. And we're all for improving the VA. And we're all for

finding efficiencies. But this is not the way to do it. This is just an arbitrary cut. You're

you're taking a meat cleaver to something that could be done with a precision tool

And it's also of all the government agencies for them to do this to the VA

You could go slower There no rush here Work with us work with veteran organizations work with Democrats and Republicans and have a thorough review and see where we can do better

And I think there are areas we can do better. There's, I think, areas we could be investing more in. But this is not the way to do it

The go fast and break things approach that the Silicon Valley world has does not work when it comes to veterans

Because when you break things, people die. Veterans commit suicide. Veterans become homeless

And you can't undo that. And so that model may work in other departments and other government bureaucracies

But we owe it to these veterans to take our time, figure out what to do and how to do it safely

because once we break it, we're not getting it back. I know you've been focused on veterans policy

but I know you've also been watching what's going on with the Defense Department as well with some of the recent signal scandal, the sharing of classified information

or not classified, but sensitive information over a non-government network there. As someone who served on the front line, someone who saw quite a bit of combat

what's your reaction to that and what are you hearing again from veterans

from military members about the concerns with this issue? Well, it's not a concern, but I think for a lot of them, they're more insulted than anything else

We know operational security. And just because the president and the secretary of defense refused to classify what they spoke at as having a top secret classification doesn't mean what they did wasn't dangerous

And the fact that they're openly lying to us and saying there was nothing wrong with what they did when we've been there

If you tell someone when you're leaving a certain fob or an area and what you're bombing and what the weapons and platforms you're going to use, it's pretty simple to find out how quickly they're going to be overhead

So number one is insulting to the community, in my opinion. Number two it does worry us about the reputation and the ability of the Secretary of Defense I think there some things that are very good that the Secretary of Defense is doing

Some of them are bringing back the warrior ethos. I think as a Marine veteran, I appreciate that

But some of the stuff that he was talking about on that signal chat

seemed to be more to impress his friends than to actually effectively execute an operation

And the most important thing you have to focus, especially I think as a leader, especially in the military, is mission accomplishment

And he potentially compromised that mission. And what does this mean for other missions going forward

Last question for you here. As you try and find paths forward here and try and find some, you said there was a couple issues that you think there's going to be bipartisan agreement on

Have you had any success reaching out to Secretary Collins, Secretary Hegseth, any of the administration officials there

or is it just a one-way line of communication right now from the administration, the executive side

Well, so it's a mixed bag, actually. I voted for Secretary Collins

I served with him in the House of Representatives. I wanted to give him a good chance and opportunity because I think I owe it to the voters of Arizona

So I'm very disappointed he's going down this road. I've actually had some really good work with the Secretary of the Interior, a couple of the other secretaries

and nominees. We've had a good working relationship. We've actually been able to fix

some problems that have come up because of cuts, just misunderstanding, things of that nature

So I'm keeping the options open. Just because I am disagreeing with the administrator right now

does not mean that I won't work with other secretaries on other issues. I'm always open

to bringing results back for the country. But at the core, we have to protect our veterans. And

that's what I promised to do. It's one of the main reasons why I even ran for office, you know

ever at all. And I can't at this point just sit silently and just let this keep going as if it's

normal. Senator, thanks so much for the time. I know there's a whole bunch of other hearings and

events to get to. So we'll let you get to that. Thank you so much. Thank you, brother