{"id":23139,"date":"2025-03-14T18:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T00:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-veterans-have-faith-that-federal-cuts-wont-hurt-them\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:27:34","slug":"local-veterans-have-faith-that-federal-cuts-wont-hurt-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-veterans-have-faith-that-federal-cuts-wont-hurt-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Local veterans \u2018have faith\u2019 that federal cuts won\u2019t hurt them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Veterans
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins addressed the public on March 7 in a video posted on its website, explaining the federal cuts. Collins promised veterans the cuts wouldn\u2019t adversely impact them.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced plans to conduct a full audit of its department to create a \u201cmore efficient\u201d and \u201caccountable\u201d VA, and local veteran services workers agree the \u201chouse cleaning\u201d needs to be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cuts are not scary,\u201d said Ron Terry, a commander and veteran at the Disabled American Veterans in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VA jobs that are needed are promised to stay. They\u2019re doing house cleaning, sweeping the front rug,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, the VA plans to cut an estimated 80,000 employees and to review its 90,000 contracts valued at more than $67 billion, cutting out \u201cduplicative\u201d or otherwise \u201cwasteful\u201d ones, according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On March 3, it announced that it cut \u201c585 non-mission-critical or duplicative contracts,\u201d saving the department about $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n

That savings will allow the VA \u201cto redirect about $900 million back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar we spend on wasteful or duplicative contracts is one less dollar we can spend on veterans,\u201d said VA Secretary Doug Collins in a news release.<\/p>\n

Collins promised the cuts wouldn\u2019t adversely impact veterans, and local veterans\u2019 officials stand behind that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t scare me,\u201d said County Veteran Service Officer Travis Parker. \u201cI spent 25 years in the military, absolutely things could be more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker is a county employee, not a VA employee. He said the layoffs will certainly impact individual lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut does VA have opportunity to be more efficient? I\u2019d assume,\u201d he said. \u201cI have faith it\u2019s not going to hurt veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker said he\u2019s visited with many concerned veterans who are worried that the federal cuts could impact their medical care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not discounting their concerns, it\u2019s just too early to set off any fire alarms,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m giving the benefit of doubt to Secretary Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry and Wes Soule, an officer and veteran at the DAV, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Secretary Collins stays true to his word, people in direct care to veterans won\u2019t be terminated,\u201d said Terry.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, \u201cnobody here has been directly impacted,\u201d there\u2019s no list yet of what jobs will be cut yet and the 80,000 number is just an estimate, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too early to tell whether the cuts will be good or bad,\u201d said Terry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the VA runs better than it has in the past, it\u2019ll be 100% better,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really can\u2019t be worse than it\u2019s been in the past with availability and access to care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unlikely the government will do away w the VA,\u201d Soule added.<\/p>\n

\u201cVA health care isn\u2019t just for vets,\u201d Soule said. \u201cIt\u2019s intended to be emergency community care, too. It\u2019s part of the public health safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a video on Friday, March 7, where Secretary Collins said they\u2019re continuing to hire for more than 300,000 \u201cmission critical positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under President Donald Trump, Collins said, the department will be more efficient and accountable, something they\u2019ll accomplish \u201cwithout making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VA will always fulfill its duty to provide veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the health care and benefits they have earned,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThat\u2019s a promise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘It\u2019s too early to tell whether the cuts will be good or bad,\u2019 DAV commander says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77990,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23139\/revisions\/77990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23139"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}