March 18, 2026

Ranking Member Takano's Remarks at Hearing on Package of Veterans’ Bills

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 27 bills.

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.?

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced numerous initiatives, plans, and regulations very publicly, but when we ask questions, the Department has become very opaque. When we manage to get VA witnesses before us for hearings the responses to our questions have been inadequate. This has become deeply frustrating and unacceptable. I don’t know that this specific exercise proposed by the Chairman will improve this, but I am willing to try.

I welcome an effort by this Chamber and by this Committee to reclaim its authority and reaffirm our Article 1 powers, by doing the real oversight that VA so desperately needs.

VA is the second largest federal agency, and it has a critical mission. VA’s mission will continue to be underscored by every military action the US takes part in. The Trump administration’s choice to attack Iran has consequences for servicemembers, veterans, and this Committee. As such, we need to ensure that VA is prepared to serve a new generation of veterans that will come through its doors.

The process being undertaken by the Committee starting today has been billed as something like the Armed Services Committee’s work on its annual National Defense Authorization. That would be a big undertaking for a committee that has never done anything like that before, and our timeline here is very compressed given where we are in the Congress.

As the Chairman knows, the Armed Services Committee must pass an annual reauthorization for three reasons: first to meet Congress’s Article 1, Section 8 responsibilities to “raise and support” the military, second to make sure the Department can continue to function, and third because the Armed Services Committee really only passes one bill a year, so it replaces all other authorizing work for the year.

If it is the Chairman’s intent to do that here, this process would signify a dramatic shift in how this Committee functions.

However, the more I review our agenda, the more questions I have regarding next steps – not only for our witnesses, but for this Committee.

Of the twenty-seven bills we are reviewing today, none are strictly reauthorizations of existing programs.?Many are wholesale rewrites of ongoing VA efforts or entirely new proposals.?

I think it is going to take more than just this hearing to get a sufficient understanding of the impacts and costs of these proposals and fundamentally whether they will improve care and services for veterans, which should be the guiding principle for the consideration of any piece of legislation in this Committee.

Furthermore, unlike our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, we don’t yet have a Chairman’s mark to evaluate, and there have been no subcommittee hearings or markups.

In fact, the only work this Committee has done that reflects a larger annual reauthorization process is the joint VSO hearings held over the last month.?We heard directly from stakeholders about their priorities, and it will be important to compare what is on this agenda with those priorities.

Most importantly, we will need significant feedback from stakeholders on this agenda and whether it is, again, meeting the guiding principle of improving care and services for veterans.

I would like to believe we can still operate in a bipartisan manner and get things accomplished on behalf of veterans, but I would also like to believe that we can still work together to hold VA accountable and to demand transparency about its operations.

We should not consume months of Committee work with an exercise that does not result in real oversight or meaningful improvements for veterans.

I have one bill on the agenda, and I am also shepherding two discussion drafts that I will speak on now.

First, I am the sponsor of the Ensuring Veterans’ Smooth Transition, or EVEST Act, a bill I have championed for many years.

There is absolutely no reason that veterans who are eligible shouldn’t be automatically enrolled in VA health care.

None.

Veterans earned this care through their service to our nation and for us to gatekeep their access to that care does nothing to improve their medical outcomes.

Further, we know that the months following transition out of the military can be very stressful and risk factors are elevated, including for mental health.

VA’s testimony claims that this legislation overlaps with existing efforts. That is frankly not true, and nothing in the EVEST Act would inhibit VA’s existing goals and efforts.

That is why DAV, PVA, VFW, and many more VSOs are endorsers of this bill. The time for automatic enrollment is now.

Second, I want to call my colleagues’ attention to two bills on the agenda related to toxic exposure and the unfinished work of the PACT Act.

Mr. Chairman, I hope we can all agree that almost four years after its passage the PACT Act has been a success. Millions of veterans have received care and benefits because of its provisions. Its continued success depends on those responsible for its implementation, but sadly under this administration we have seen progress stall. Therefore, it falls to us to continue to legislate to improve implementation and our oversight of the PACT Act.

One of the Trump administration’s and Secretary Collins’s very first acts was to dissolve the PACT Act project management office. This office was responsible for overseeing the Department’s implementation of the law. And to this day we have no explanation for VA’s decision to deemphasize the PACT Act.

This is why we have a bill to create a new office focused solely on toxic exposure, and to elevate the head of that office to the rank of Assistant Secretary. Addressing toxic exposure is simply that important.

Mr. Chairman, it’s also an unfortunate reality that this administration views communication and collaboration with Veterans Service Organizations as an afterthought, or an obstacle to be overcome. Time and again we’ve seen the voices of VSOs marginalized or outright ignored…one-way communication that is shallow and perfunctory, and increasingly infrequent. And the results of that poor communication are the numerous policy stumbles Secretary Collins continues to make.

If the Department can’t see fit to elevate the voices of veterans, then we in Congress must mandate it. To that end, we are proposing a bill to create an advisory committee on toxic exposure, to help guide the Department in its work on addressing this issue.

The PACT Act created a framework to develop new presumptions of service connection for toxic exposed veterans. But the Department isn’t using that process to its fullest extent, including listening to veterans about how to make continued progress on addressing toxic exposure. This advisory committee would create a venue for veterans to be heard, and require their ideas be taken seriously.

Thank you, and I yield back.”

 

The 27 bills discussed at today’s legislative hearing include:

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