Doug Collins, who was recently confirmed as secretary of Veterans Affairs, told Newsmax Thursday that he wants to raise the bar for service at the agency.
"We're the largest non-DOD department in the government; we have almost 479,000 employees and a $360 billion budget," Collins, formerly a congressman from Georgia said on "Greg Kelly Reports." "Our job is one thing: Take care of vets."
Under the Biden administration, the VA ballooned in size, but it was still not meeting the needs of all veterans, Collins said.
"We still have backlogs that have grown," Collins said. "We have people waiting to get their appointments. There's a lot to do here. I look at it as a challenge. For the last four years, maybe the VA wasn't operating as it should. Well, that's changed as of yesterday. My job is to raise the bar to motivate those who work at the VA to be the best that they can be and to take care of those veterans and that backlog."
Collins said that every time he hears a veteran say they had to call their congressman or senator to get help, that means they missed their mark.
"My goal is to make sure the VA is doing what it's supposed to do," Collins said. "I know [President] Donald Trump has my back in that as well."
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