WASHINGTON, DC — According to Democratic leaders on the House and Senate VA committees, the VA under the leadership of Secretary Douglas Collins has “weaponized” the government shutdown, using it as an opportunity to attack congressional Democrats and an excuse to ignore congressional inquiries. These inquiries include requests on behalf of veterans who have approached their legislator following difficulty obtaining care or benefits from VA.
“Every single day, veterans and their families come to our offices for help in getting their health care and benefits from VA,” lawmakers wrote in a joint letter to Collins. “Often, they come to us as their last resort. We take those concerns or their specific cases directly to VA and advocate on their behalf. Thus, any delay in responding to this outreach or dispatching their cases will cause harm to the veterans we serve.”
These requests are handled through VA’s Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA), overseen by Assistant Secretary Don Bergin. In a letter dated Oct. 2, Bergin told committee members that VA “cannot initiate, dispatch, or respond” to congressional requests during the shutdown.
According to the legislators, OCLA has carry over funding at its disposal and during past shutdowns has utilized nonfurloughed employees to respond to congressional inquiries.
“The fact that VA has chosen not to prioritize communication with Congress on policy matters is clearly a leadership decision and a direct affront to our constitutional duty to oversee the work of the department,” the letter states. Legislators also accused VA of continuing to send information to House VA Committee majority staff, which had not been shared with House or Senate committee minority staff.
In addition, the letter noted several instances of the department’s seeming violation of federal ethics law, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities while on duty, including explicitly partisan political messaging.
On Sept. 30, an email sent to many federal workers, including VA employees, blamed the impending shutdown on Democrats’ “unrelated policy demands” and their refusal to support a continuing resolution. That same day, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz sent an email to the media stating, “Radical liberals in Congress are trying to shut down the government to achieve their crazy fantasy of open borders, ‘transgender’ for everybody and men competing in women’s sports. If they succeed, they will stop critical veterans care and assistance.”
The day after, an email was sent to millions of veterans blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
“It appears that leaders within your department have used congressionally appropriated funds to send politically charged messages to veterans and VA staff about the shutdown in what seem to be clear violations of the Hatch Act,” legislators wrote to Collins. “We remind you and your leadership team that we are tracking these violations and taking them very seriously. While the Trump administration may not enforce the Hatch Act currently, we will not hesitate to investigate these violations.”
As the shutdown continued, Collins posted similarly partisan comments on his official X account.
“A fully functioning [VA] should take precedence over free healthcare for illegal immigrants! See how the Democrats government shutdown impacts VA,” he wrote, along with a link to a list of which VA services would be impacted by the shutdown. According to VA, the vast majority of healthcare and benefits services were not impacted, with 97% of employees continuing to work during the shutdown.
The Democrat lawmakers asked Collins for a breakdown of OCLA funding and activities during the shutdown, as well as any staff that had been involved in shutdown related messages that might have violated the Hatch Act.
VA was not the only federal agency using its platform to target Democrats. When the shutdown commenced, HHS added a message on its homepage, stating “Mission-critical activities of HHS will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown. Please use this site as a resource as the Trump Administration works to reopen the government for the American people.”
The Treasury Department’s homepage added a top banner that included the message, “The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism.”