WASHINGTON – At a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) pressed officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including Secretary Doug Collins, on how the agency plans to ensure that veterans in Arizona will receive the care they deserve amid the VA’s massive workforce cuts and plans to reshape the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

During the hearing, Senator Gallego raised concerns about a new VA medical facility set to open in Yuma by summer 2027. The facility was designed to provide Yuma’s large, rural veteran population with comprehensive, local care – including primary care, women’s health, mental health services, lab and imaging, optometry, and audiology – so veterans wouldn’t have to travel long distances for treatment.

However, under the VA’s newly imposed staffing caps, the Yuma facility will not be allowed to hire new staff. Instead, it would be forced to pull providers from already understaffed VA hospitals elsewhere in Arizona.

“How can you guarantee that veterans in Yuma will be able to get medical care if there are these staffing caps are still existing?” Senator Gallego asked VA Secretary Doug Collins. “How can I look my constituents in the eye and tell them that this VA does not understand that they are essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul and potentially not creating a fully functioning system in one place?”

Senator Gallego also pressed officials on wait times for mental health appointments at the VA, which are especially long in Arizona.

“We are going to be opening up the VA Facility at the same time you are starting this new process,” Senator Gallego continued. “As of two weeks ago, the average wait time for new VA patients for mental health appointments in Arizona was 51 days. I don’t have to tell you guys, especially from my personal experience, when people have problems we need to get them in to see somebody. The national average was around 35 days. What was happening in Arizona, we have that 16 day difference, which is growing, [and it] is going to be extremely dangerous if we can’t prevent veteran suicide or other problems.”

Watch the full hearing HERE.