What’s behind senator’s block on all VA nominees?

Senator Geiger, thank you for sitting down with us. You're on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

You're a veteran with a pretty prominent voice. And I know this week you came out and said that you have a lot of concerns with what's going to go on with VA, some of these proposed cuts

You actually have put a hold on all nominees at the Department of Veterans Affairs

Why the reason for that? What do you think that's going to do here

Well, look, simple reason, you know, being in the veteran community, talking to friends that I served with, going back to Arizona

People are afraid, I want to say people, veterans and their families, that these cuts are just arbitrary

They have no clear intention. It's potentially going to harm services to people

And if you want to improve the VA, I think there's ways to do it

But just take an arbitrary cut out of nowhere and saying that you have to fire 88,000 people without any real plan

How is that going to affect services? How is it going to affect our veterans? And I don't believe it's possible

In Arizona, they just told my VA hospital, the Phoenix VA hospital, they have to get rid of 15% of their workforce by June

This is the Phoenix VA that's had problems in the past because of lack of staffing

And now all of a sudden, they're going to just start getting rid of 15% of their workforce

And talking to people that use the VA, I actually have used the VA in the past too, talking to current workers

There is no way they're going to be able to cut 15% of that staff without it actually affecting veterans

And I'm just not going to let that happen. I'm going to try to slow the process as much as possible so at least we could save a lot of these workers and more importantly, potentially save veterans' lives

So VA has said that they want to do a review before they go into some of these cuts and they're going to look and see where there's efficiency and everything

But they've also announced that number, that 80,000 plus number. Right where did that number come from right Yeah so And in Arizona they just sent out a notice starting in April that they want the they want the Phoenix VA to identify the 15 percent of the staff that they want to get rid of by June

Where did that review come from? Right. This is dealing. This is real people's lives

People will veterans will die. They're going to be lack of services, lack of mental health services

There's so much work we've been doing to turn around the VA. And, you know, some 22 year old Silicon Valley boys coming up with an idea of what there should be cuts to the VA has zero concept about the VA

Now, VA has grown dramatically in terms of its workforce and its budget in recent years

So just so I can clarify, you're not saying that there's not room for any efficiencies here

I'm sure there's efficiency, but let's actually think about this versus just having an arbitrary cut

And by the way, the VA has grown because the veteran population has grown

Because we rectified a bad situation where there were so many veterans that were exposed to toxic burn pits

I'm including one of them. We saw a lot of veterans that were being affected by it, some of them dying, that we had to expand the VIA in order to meet that demand when we expose these men and women to these toxins

And now because there's this, I don't know, idea that everywhere in government there needs to be efficiency that includes firing arbitrarily people, veterans are going to be at the end of it

If you want to do this, then let's do this in a bipartisan manner. Let's sit down and actually have a real review about where we can find efficiencies, where we can make investments

And maybe that does mean that we have to close some areas, shift some areas, merge some people, hire more people, invest in technology

The fact is they're not doing any of that. They're just saying the best way for us to do it is just to cut 15 percent of the workforce, at least in Arizona, 88,000 people across the country

But they're not telling us how that actually is going to improve the lives of veterans or actually bring efficiency

So you just mentioned it here But this is not just a theoretical exercise for you You a veteran You served in a war zone You had some experience with the burn pits overseas And you got quite a few friends contacts folks you know who are using VA

So, I mean, in recent years, we've seen VA try and push out and bring more folks in

How do you think that work has gone? And is there a fear that this all starts to slide back, even if the cuts don't go through

Look, I fear that there is going to be a slide back in terms of, you know

people they're not going to go and try to get their services veterans are going to go try to

get services and i i certainly saw that when i returned from the war in 2005 um i was deep into

ptsd i didn't didn't really recognize it then a lot of my guys did i tried to go get um services

i think around 2006 2007 was rejected um and because of paperwork and you know and i should

have just stuck it out but i didn't and and you know i went without for almost nine years um

And I'm afraid that the work that we've been doing, Democrats and Republicans, through multiple administrations, to get the VA where it is, where people feel like they could go and get the work and the services that they need, are just going to feel rejected and they're just going to walk away

And we know that veterans, especially those with PTSD, if they don't seek treatment, they will have a higher likelihood of either A, not really having a fulfilling life, or B, suicide

On that mental health issue, I know that's been a challenge for VA to recruit and retain those folks who passed

It seems self-evident, but if you're trying to bring more of those folks in and having these cuts at the same time

is that sending a mixed message to the medical community? Absolutely. I mean, especially some of our trained therapists, they can go and work in the private sector

and make a lot more money than they are in the VA. And so why if you are coming out of college with some debt would you go and work for the VA if at any point the VA could arbitrarily just fire you They not just firing and giving you severance

They're literally firing you and giving you your last paycheck and you're off health insurance within a month, right

And so how are we going to recruit the doctors, the nurses, the specialists, you know, all these people that can make better pay and be more stable in the private sector when you have kind of this gross abuse of employees

employees. And again, it's not the employees that matter in the end. It's the services they provide

to these veterans that are going to be hurt at the end. All right. So you're a Democrat. You're

in the minority in the Senate right now. This hold is something you can do. But talk to me about how

you know, how effective this can be and what else you can do in terms of fighting against some of

these proposals. Well, you know, this is one of the few kind of arrows I have in my quiver

Normally, these types of nominees would just kind of sail through without any type of fight

and I'm going to make the V administrator fight for his political appointee

And until I feel that veterans are going to be held harmless, he's going to have to push these through the hard way

And then when it comes to the budget, every time I have an opportunity to make sure that we shore up the Veterans Administration budget

and services for our veterans, I'm going to do that. It's one of the main reasons why I voted against the last budget resolution

because it cut $1.2 billion from veteran services, and I'm just not going to vote for that

You know, we've been talking for so long about taking care of men and women, and, you know, when you join, you talk about service to your country

and how your country is going to remember you, and I guess we've forgotten that. Well, I haven't forgotten it

and I'm going to try to hold this country's oath to these veterans