'We Can Play The Game Back & Forth!': Doug Collins Has Extremely Testy Exchange With Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick

Forbes Breaking News

At Thursday's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) questioned VA Sec. Doug Collins.

Transcript

00:00Representative Schifflick-Harmick, you're recognized for seven minutes.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Secretary, for being here today. I have a few questions for you.

00:08Would you agree that housing is an important priority for our veterans?

00:15In generalization question, I mean, is housing important for anyone?

00:19I mean, I apologize. I'm not sure what you're looking for.

00:22Do you prioritize veterans benefits when it comes to housing?

00:25Making sure that our veterans are housing.

00:26I prioritize all the benefits that our veterans earned.

00:28No, specifically, it's yes or no, then. We can just do yes or no.

00:31Well, I will do that if it actually answers the question.

00:34Is it a yes or a no, sir?

00:36For what?

00:36Do you prioritize veterans housing?

00:38I prioritize all veterans benefits.

00:40Yes or no. Yes or no, please.

00:42Yes or no to what?

00:44I mean, we can play this game back and forth.

00:45Secretary Collins, I'm not interested in that. I'm really getting...

00:48It seems you are.

00:49Secretary Collins, I am not interested in that.

00:51We have real concerns, especially in the state with our veterans.

00:54So could you please answer it yes or no? If you choose not to answer,

00:57just say you choose not to answer and it's not important.

00:59Do we prioritize housing for veterans? Yes.

01:02We also prioritize health care and everything else.

01:03Thank you. Thank you.

01:04So do you prioritize and fully commit to housing veterans,

01:08especially when it comes to flexible assistance to homeless veterans?

01:12I'll fully commit to helping the veterans in any way we can through the programs we currently have,

01:16but I refuse to get the VA involved in something like VAS that we should have never been involved with

01:20to start with.

01:21Excuse me. Could you please answer my question? Because we are not talking about VAS.

01:24Once again, the question is, if you would like to listen to the question,

01:28is do you support providing flexible assistance to our homeless veterans,

01:32like access to transportation, hygiene products, blanket support, to help our veterans?

01:40The answer is we support our veterans. Yes or no?

01:43Yes. I mean, yes. I have a question. Where are we not?

01:46Do you believe that access to lands owned by VA should be in part used to address veterans homelessness?

01:54That's yes or no?

01:57If the land is suitable, it can be used.

02:01Yes or no?

02:01I can't give you an answer to a question that has a hypothetical that cannot be answered.

02:05It's a yes or no?

02:06No. No, it is not.

02:06It is? Okay.

02:07So we're not going to-

02:08Mr. Chairman, I mean, I cannot answer a hypothetical.

02:09It's my time, sir. It's my time. You don't need to look at the chairman. I'm right here,

02:12and it's my time.

02:13I know exactly where you are, but I can't answer your question.

02:15The respect that I'm giving you, I deserve it also.

02:17I'll get it.

02:18So please answer those questions as yes or no, because you're taking up my time with this.

02:22So the next question I have for you. Now, there's so many veterans who are losing their homes,

02:26especially in Florida, and we're finding more of them becoming homeless. So my real concern is about the Elizabeth Dole Act.

02:32We have a clause in there that actually deals with that, and you have not been implementing it.

02:37So that's why I want to identify if this is actually important to you or if it's a priority,

02:43because my veterans do want to know if this is one of your priorities.

02:46Yes, it is a priority. Anything in the Dole Act, we will implement.

02:49So why have you not taken it to implement it in these stances?

02:53Because the Dole Act was given at the end of last administration. It came in, and I've been in here

02:59over four months. There are 72 total provisions in the Dole Act. We've completed nine. We're working on track with 55.

03:06We got two that we're still at risk, and we're still working. So we're doing everything we can.

03:10So if housing was in fact a priority for you, wouldn't you skim it to find out which priorities,

03:15or how can you actually make housing accessible? Because my question is, we looked at and we saw that

03:21there was a significant gains we made towards homelessness from January of 2023 to 2024.

03:27Right now, we're seeing that there's a potential for us to lose the momentum that we've been gaining.

03:33And in addition to that, when we talk about the purchase, the service purchase program,

03:37which you said that you would like to terminate, or you're terminating, we want to know what are the

03:40other instances, or what do you have in place for our homeless veterans to protect them?

03:46The issue in termination of ASP as we go is that we are looking to do everything we possibly can

03:54that is already currently there for veterans in the VA for assistance, whether it be their

03:58mortgage or other things. We also can work with other agencies such as HUD and others to find ways

04:03to help them as we go forward. I'm willing to look and move forward anything we can without

04:08sacrificing also the bigger picture. I'm not, unfortunately, able to just simply pick the areas,

04:13especially in the Dole Act, where I want them to get all of it implemented for all of the caregivers

04:17as we go forward. And I think the Trump, Donald Trump, just a few, and with Congressman Pappas as

04:22well, that EO also talked about using facilities, the VA, which has been ignored and frankly under

04:28previous administrations was allowed land that we had that we could have helped homelessness in LA

04:33was actually farmed out to private schools and ball fields. So I'm trying to look at it from a

04:39perspective. You and I actually agree probably more than, unfortunately, this came off,

04:42and I apologize for that. We agree on this issue that we need to look at what we can do within the

04:48confines of what we have. And so how quickly do you believe that you'll start prioritizing or putting

04:53this in place? Because I have to answer to my veterans also to make sure that we see them and we

04:58understand that housing is so critically important, especially towards their dignity

05:02and the contract that we have with our veterans, which is to protect them and make sure they live with

05:06dignity. I agree with you and I'll be happy to work with you and talk about specific

05:10changes, especially Florida. I have Georgia as my home. I don't get there very often anymore,

05:14but it's a very similar situation for us on housing cost and housing quality. Any of those information

05:19within the Dole Act, we're going to continue to implement. And if there's ways that we can help

05:23expand something we currently already have, I'm willing to look at that as well. But I think this is

05:28just where we need to make sure that we're doing stuff that helps and doesn't either have a negative

05:32impact some other place with other programs. And so my last question is going to be really quick,

05:37even though it's a huge issue. It's about the dismantling of the Office of Equity Assurance.

05:42We just had a roundtable where we had many of our minority veterans there who talked about the

05:47disparities and them actually drawing down their benefits, specifically when it comes to PTSD.

05:54How are you going to handle these situations, specifically when that office has been dismantled?

05:59That office, again, being dismantled has nothing to do with the fact of my commitment to make

06:03sure any veteran who's earned a benefit gets their benefit, no matter what their background,

06:07what their skin color, or anything else. Specifically the disparities I wanted to point

06:10to. How are you going to handle the disparities? Because we have years and years of documentation,

06:14especially when it came to housing, where we saw different generations that were disadvantaged.

06:19How are you going to do that specifically when this office has actually been dismantled?

06:23I think it's when you're actually supposed to be doing your job, it takes a secretary to lead and

06:26make sure that our organizations are not doing anything away from that. Will you be handling that?

06:29Will you be handling it? Because you said it takes a secretary. It takes a secretary to give leadership

06:33to the organizations that are supposed to be approving our benefits. Congressman, if you have

06:37somebody who's been discriminated against or not getting the benefits they've earned, then I'll be

06:41happy to work with you to make sure that's rectified. But that's something against the law,

06:45that we're not going to break the law. We're going to actually give the benefits that they've earned.

06:48Okay, so specifically, should they contact your office then? Because this office has been dismantled.

06:53Who should they reach out to? Well, the question is, it's not the office that was not a part of the benefits

06:58that they weren't getting. Why are they not contacting the office of the benefits in which

07:01they were denied? Excuse me, sir. The question specifically is,

07:03who should they contact? Contact? Which benefit are they looking for? If they should call VBA,

07:08which is the benefits, that would be the area to call if it's a... So there's not going to be,

07:12the elimination now is going to be shifted to different offices. Thank you. I yield back.

Category

Transcript

Recommended