Ranking Member Takano's Remarks at Hearing on VA Plan to Reorganize VHA

WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at today’s House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Full Committee hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plan to reorganize the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

“Thank you, Chairman Bost. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at the A-F-G-E legislative conference. I met with colleagues of Alex Pretti who shared stories about his service to veterans. I’ve listened to testimonials from veteran patients for whom Alex provided care. It is clear Alex was exactly the type of employee that VA needs and exemplified the values of a true public servant. I am outraged that Alex was taken from us by the hands of the lawless Trump regime. My heart is with the Pretti family, Alex’s VA colleagues in Minneapolis and across the country, and the many friends he leaves behind.

Please join me in a moment of silence for Alex Pretti.

Thank you. In addition to the many testimonials from his colleagues and veteran patients about Alex’s service, I have received a mountain of complaints about your lack of leadership, Mr. Secretary, in response to this tragedy. Your employees are hurting. They have looked to you for leadership, but what they have received is hostility.

The foundation of VA is its people. Delivering world-class care to veterans depends on the strength of that foundation: the workforce that keeps VA standing strong. Mr. Secretary, your foundation is cracking.

When you moved in, this house was in good shape. VA had strong bones. It was functioning at record levels, serving millions of veterans every day. But under your leadership, the house is falling into disrepair from neglect.

When a house like VA needs repairs or renovation, responsible owners don’t tear it down—they fix what’s broken while preserving what works by reinforcing the structure, upgrading outdated systems, and addressing real problems deliberately and carefully.

But that requires a plan – a fully baked plan, not just concepts of a plan. No one would undertake a major home remodel without architectural plans, engineering assessments, and a clear sequence of work.

Yet VA is attempting a total reorganization of the largest integrated healthcare system in the country with little more than a half-page notification to Congress and a 10-page slide deck.

In contrast, when VHA was reorganized in 1995, this is the book that was prepared to explain and justify its plans, called the Vision for Change.

This 134-page book includes detailed analyses of how care would be improved for veterans. It contains significant input from Congress, veterans, VSOs, VA employees, and other stakeholders.

These do not.

You are tearing down walls before determining whether they’re load-bearing— and veterans will be the ones crushed if the structure collapses.

Like most home renovations, reorganizations are disruptive and time-consuming. Yet VA is attempting this massive reorganization while simultaneously deploying an unproven new electronic health record rife with problems, executing a trillion-dollar community care contract, and grappling with severe staffing shortages and turnover across the system. Any one of these projects would strain an organization. Taken together, they will overwhelm it.

This reorganization is the third in a series of attempts to shrink and destabilize VA since the beginning of the Trump Administration.

First came the chaos of DOGE with its reckless keyword searches, data munching, and indiscriminate slashing of contracts for essential services. Over 2,000 VA employees were carelessly fired overnight, by email, without an understanding of the consequences for veterans.

Then came the second attempt to shrink VA with a plan to conduct a RIF to lay off 83,000 employees. A plan you tried to convince us was somehow about putting veterans first.

Remember this, Mr. Secretary? These actions were clearly performative and in service to an extreme ideology. They provided absolutely no benefit to VA or veterans, only harm. Both of these attempts failed because the courts and Congress held VA accountable.

But the disruption was real, and the damage was done. Institutional knowledge and valuable employees walked out the door. Veterans are now left feeling the consequences in terms of access and continuity of care.

And this reorganization marks the third attempt to dismantle VA. Despite this record, you are coming to us with nothing more than a slide deck and asking Congress to trust you. You are asking for deference while withholding basic information about staffing levels and the real-world impact on veterans’ care. This lack of trust in your leadership is not theoretical. Frankly, you’ve earned it.

Veterans are the center of what we do in this Committee, but veterans are clearly not the center of this reorganization effort. VA leadership has not proven that a reorganization—and especially this reorganization—is the best solution for addressing their stated goals.

Streamlining care delivery does not require a massive and disruptive reorganization of the agency. At a very basic level, streamlining care requires having enough clinical and support staff to get veterans in for appointments.

However, Mr. Secretary, since you took the helm, the agency has shed a net twenty thousand four hundred employees across VHA alone, representing centuries’ worth of experience. Those losses include:

Over 1,100 doctors –one hundred left VA in December alone;

Over 2,300 registered nurses

Nearly 700 medical support assistants

Nearly 700 social workers

Nearly 650 licensed practical nurses

Nearly 300 psychologists

And over 250 police officers

Yet today we are going to be told that this plan – which includes making it even more difficult for VA to hire more staff – will streamline care for veterans? I listened to the Senate hearing two weeks ago, and your remarks on Fox News the other day, where you claimed you are doing more with less staff.

The veterans who call our offices beg to differ. They tell us every day that they cannot get VA appointments or that the provider with whom they had a strong, trusting relationship left. VA whistleblowers bravely contact us and share how their facilities are being pushed to the brink, trying to meet patient demand with less staff and fewer resources. You are not doing more with less. You and VA are doing less with less.

There is a lot at stake, not least the health and lives of the veterans we serve. The reorganization materials also fail to consider the impact on VHA’s vital role in health professional training, research, and federal emergency response. Lives are on the line. You have the chance to course correct today. Let’s see if you seize the opportunity.

With that, I yield back.”

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