U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins was peppered with questions Tuesday about widespread layoffs at the federal agency during a press conference at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville.
Collins has said the VA will lay off as many as 80,000 staffers as part of President Donald Trump’s controversial strategy to streamline the federal government. The VA has already laid off 2,400 probationary employees, including 14 or 15 staff members who lost jobs at the Asheville VA hospital. Collins shared that one executive assistant, interior designers, and some stock clerks were among the 14 or 15 staffers let go in Asheville.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Collins said cost-savings from layoffs will be redirected to patient care. “Hundreds of millions of dollars” have already been directed to patient care, he said.
VA Secretary Doug Collins addresses rumors about veterans’ benefits cuts in a recent video filmed in his office. // Photo: US Department of Veterans Affairs
The Iraq War veteran and former Air Force chaplain said news outlets have made his job tougher by contributing misinformation about what is occurring at the VA.
“Health care and benefits are not being cut,” Collins said. “Most of that is statutory and that’s not something we’re going to cut in the sense of what’s being said, but I have people on the outside, even probably out here in the front today saying, ‘you’re cutting benefits.’”
Click here to see a video Collins recorded last month to address concerns about rumored health care and benefits cuts at the VA.
Big planned cuts draw protests
Asheville-area news outlets reported that more than 20 demonstrators gathered outside the Asheville VA to complain about federal budget cuts. Blue Ridge Public Radio reported that some held signs that read: “Trump hates vets” and “Protect our veterans from DOGE.”
DOGE refers to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, whom Trump charged with reducing “waste” in the federal government and improving efficiency.
Collins said he spends “most of my time fighting innuendo and rumor.”
“Quit scaring my veterans,” Collins implored. “Quit scaring my employees. We’ve got a lot of change coming and we’re going to work together to have it.”
Collins pushed back on what he said are false claims that VA layoffs will include doctors and nurses.
“That’s not even in our consideration right now,” Collins said. “I need more good doctors; I need more good nurses. I need more of who are taking care of people on the front line.”
Colorado Newsline reported on Tuesday that veterans are already complaining in detail to members of Congress about how VA cuts are already limiting their access to care.
But Collins claimed the agency will mostly make cuts at the “bureaucracy layer” that runs from VA doctors to the agency’s central office in Washington. The agency, for example, will look at federal contracts for cuts, he said.
“By the way, 2 percent was all we looked at so far in contracts and we found monies that came from; we were paying people to write PowerPoints for us and meeting notes,” Collins said. “That doesn’t help my doctors. That doesn’t help them do what they’re supposed to do.”
The secretary was also critical of media reports about long waits for care at VA and canceled surgeries. The folks complaining are the ones most resistant to change, he said.
“I’m going to challenge anybody that you can’t tell me that the things are bad, and 60 percent of the calls to congressional offices are saying we need help getting to VA benefits or getting their help and then tell me we can’t change anything.”
Much of the criticism and pushback being directed at Collins, however, has come from Trump allies. Politico reported last week that Republican members of Congress have made a “flurry of panicked calls” to the agency as details of planned cuts have emerged.
The report quoted Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) as saying efforts to downsize “must be done in a more responsible manner,” and that planned cuts must be “justifiable.”
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Politico, “Maybe you’ve got a good reason to do it. I like Doug Collins — he’s a great guy. But we don’t need to be reading memos in the paper about 20 percent cut at the VA.”
Collins spoke extensively about veterans’ suicide, contending that the nation spends more than $588 million a year to prevent suicides among veterans each year but the numbers remain the same.
“We got great people doing great things with our suicide prevention but is there better ways to do it?” Collins asked. “We’re spending $588 million on prevention and we’re staying between 17 and 40 [veteran suicides per day], depending on what numbers you want to look at. I don’t accept that as a veteran. I want to find better ways.”
According to the 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report, which analyzed data from 2001 to 2022, there were 6,407 suicides among veterans in 2022 compared to 41,484 among non-veteran U.S. adults. There were on average 131.2 adult suicides per day, with 17.6 veteran suicides per day, according to the report. The VA’s data show 209 veteran suicides in North Carolina in 2022.
Collins called the Asheville VA Medical Center a “family community that is working.” He pledged to take what’s working there and at other successful centers to replicate across the country.
“When you get as large as we are, it’s always good to see folks doing it well,” Collins said. “That also doesn’t mean we can’t do it better. I think that’s one of the things I’m emphasizing as I move forward. How do we take the things that are good here in places like Asheville in Western North Carolina and make that something we can model elsewhere in the country?”
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. Investigative Reporter Greg Childress covers issues related to poverty, homelessness, and housing policy.This article is republished here with permission.
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SUMMARY: The FDA has issued a warning about counterfeit Ozempic being found in the U.S. drug supply. Both the FDA and Ozempic’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, are urging patients and pharmacies to verify the legitimacy of their prescriptions. Counterfeit vials pose potential health risks, with several hundred units distributed outside the official supply chain. The fakes can be identified by a specific combination of a real lot number (P0362) and an illegitimate serial number starting with “51746517.” The FDA and FBI have both warned about counterfeit weight loss drugs, urging individuals to validate their Ozempic supplies.
The FDA and the manufacturer of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk are urging patients, doctors and pharmacies to check their Ozempic prescriptions.
www.thecentersquare.com – By David Beasley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-15 15:45:00
(The Center Square) – The North Carolina Senate’s version of a state budget for the next two years breezed through three committees Tuesday with few changes or opposition.
The proposed budget, Senate Bill 257, includes income tax cuts, and a doubling of taxes for sports betting companies who operate in North Carolina from 18% to 36%.
The Senate spending proposal, unlike Gov. Josh Stein’s proposed budget, fully funds the state’s retirement plan. It also increases funding for the state health care plan by $318 million over the next two years.
It would raise teacher pay and funding for colleges and universities.
“This budget continues the success North Carolina has seen over the last decade and half,” Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, one of the bill’s sponsors, told members of the Appropriations/Base Budget Committee.
The first year of the two-year proposed budget is $32.6 billion, the second year $33.3 billion, Hise said. It’s an increase of $1.3 billion, or 4% in the first year, and $733 million in the second year.
He described it as “modest growth” that still allows the state to replenish its “rainy day” reserve fund, which at the end of two years will be back at $4.75 billion. It will bring state funding for a new children’s hospital in Charlotte to $855 million.
It adds another $700 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, adding to the $1.4 billion already appropriated.
“It is also our understanding that Gov. Stein is working on another request for recovery needs,” Hise said. “But as yet, we are not at that place.”
Some of the state funds spent on hurricane relief will likely be reimbursed by the federal government, Hise added.
“We are hopeful the federal government will provide increased and expedited reimbursements,” Hise said. “But we must prepare to fend for ourselves.”
Under the proposed budget, most state employees would receive 1.25% raise the first year and a $3,000 bonus over the entire two-year period covered by the budget, said Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover.
Correctional officers would receive a 5.25% raise with other state law enforcement officers also getting extra pay raises. Local law enforcement officers would receive $3,000 bonuses over the two-year period. Nurses employed by the state would also received higher 3.25% raises over the two years.
Teachers would receive a 3.3% raise over the two years plus a $3,000 bonus. With those raises, the average teacher pay in North Carolina will be $62,407, Lee said.
The proposed budget passed the Appropriations/Base Budget Committee, Finance Committee and Pensions, Finance and Aging Committee with only minor changes on Tuesday.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-14 11:31:00
(The Center Square) – Senators in North Carolina are scheduled to work a budget proposal through three committees Tuesday.
The 2025 Appropriations Act, known also as Senate Bill 257, is to be heard first in the Appropriations/Base Budget Committee. Next is a stop in the Finance Committee, followed 15 minutes later by the Pensions and Retirement and Aging Committee. Senate Bills 258 and 263 carry the same title.
President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, noted in his opening address in January the General Assembly has “moved away from the unsteady rollercoaster of boom-and-bust budgets toward consistent, conservative, fiscally sound budgets.”
The legislation is only beginning, according to the state legislative website. Filed March 11, it was at two pages at midday Monday.
Typically, the governor is first to offer a budget proposal, both chambers follow, and then the negotiations ensue. July 1 is the start of the fiscal year, though it was late September in 2024 when the midterm adjustment was finalized.
Because of the July 14, 2016, signing of a law by Republican former Gov. Pat McCrory, the state government avoided shutdown during a three-year budget impasse that began after Cooper’s veto in 2019. Instead, the law allowed the state to operate on the previous spending plan. It remains in effect today.
North Carolina has a population estimated at 11 million, ninth largest in America and up 37.5% from 8 million just a quarter of a century ago.
Spending on education was the largest share of the last state budget at $17.9 billion for 2024-25, and $17.3 billion for 2023-24 of the $60.7 billion two-year plan.
Cooper in eight years only signed one two-year budget (2021-22), one midterm adjustment (2022) and allowed a two-year budget to become law without his signature (2023-24), the latter tied to his long-sought request for Medicaid expansion.
Cooper vetoed two-year budgets for 2017-18 and 2019-20, and midterm adjustments in 2018 and 2024. Veto overrides enacted two-year budget legislation for 2017-18 and midterm adjustments in 2018 and 2024.
