WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Angus King (I-ME), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC), Ranking Member Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) are calling on the Trump Administration to protect veteran caregivers in Maine and across the country. In a letter to Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins, the Senators press the administration to extend a pause in discharges for legacy caregivers enrolled in the VA caregivers’ program – to give these caregivers– and the veterans they serve – more certainty about the path forward.

While the Biden Administration issued a Proposed Rule in December 2024 to extend this pause, Congress has received no information about the Trump Administration’s plans for the program to date.

The Senators began, “We write to request an extension of the pause in discharges for legacy caregivers enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) on or before September 30, 2020. No information has been provided about how the current Administration plans to proceed with this rulemaking process, and we have serious concerns a failure to extend this pause will cause thousands of caregivers and veterans to lose life-changing benefits on September 30, 2025.”

“In addition, VA has not provided any information as to how the recent firings, resignations, cancellations of contracts and other Trump Administration actions have affected staffing for the Caregiver Support Program (CSP), including PCAFC,” the Senators continued in the letter. “You have said your target is to cut staffing to Fiscal Year 2019 levels, however CSP program participation has more than doubled since that time, due to the MISSION Act expansion of PCAFC to veterans of all eras…If CSP staff are cut to your target levels, the program would simply not be able to maintain the current level of support provided.”

Representing one of the states with the highest rates of military families and veterans per capita, Senator King is a staunch advocate for America’s servicemembers and veterans. A member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC), he works to ensure American veterans receive their earned benefits and that the VA is properly implementing various programs such as the PACT Act, the State Veterans Homes Domiciliary Care Flexibility Act, and the John Scott Hannon Act. Recently, Senator King introduced bipartisan legislation to help reduce suicides among veterans by providing free secure firearm storage to veterans. In addition, he helped pass the Veterans COLA Act, which increased benefits for 30,000 Maine veterans and their families. Senator King has also introduced bipartisan legislation to improve care coordination for veterans who rely on both VA health care and Medicare. Earlier this year, he cosponsored the bipartisan Major Richard Star Act that would provide more combat-injured veterans with their full earned benefits. Most recently, Senator King introduced the bipartisan Review Every Veteran’s Claims Act to make the veteran’s benefits claims process fairer by making sure bureaucracy, mistakes or unplanned schedule conflicts do not prevent veterans from receiving their benefits. 

The full text of the letter is available here and below. 

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Dear Secretary Collins,

We write to request an extension of the pause in discharges for legacy caregivers enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) on or before September 30, 2020.

President Biden’s Executive Order 14095, Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, requested VA make appropriate modifications to the eligibility criteria for PCAFC. VA subsequently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in December 2024, which included an extension of the pause in program discharges for Legacy caregivers. However, no information has been provided about how the current Administration plans to proceed with this rulemaking process, and we have serious concerns a failure to extend this pause will cause thousands of caregivers and veterans to lose life-changing benefits on September 30, 2025.

In addition, VA has not provided any information as to how the recent firings, resignations, cancellations of contracts and other Trump Administration actions have affected staffing for the Caregiver Support Program (CSP), including PCAFC. You have said your target is to cut staffing to Fiscal Year 2019 levels, however CSP program participation has more than doubled since that time, due to the MISSION Act expansion of PCAFC to veterans of all eras. In Fiscal Year 2024 alone, CSP served more than 86,000 caregivers, and expanded access to critical mental health care, respite care, bereavement and other services. If CSP staff are cut to your target levels, the program would simply not be able to maintain the current level of support provided. In fact, because VA recently cut hours for the Caregiver Support Line, access to that support has decreased because of the elimination of weekend availability and the curtailment of business hours and after-hours availability.

Since Congress enacted PCAFC in 2010, there have been considerable changes to the program, many of them resulting in caregivers and veterans being unjustifiably denied or discharged from the program. Given this history, VA must work to increase transparency and maintain sufficient staffing and funding levels for CSP, and ensure legacy caregivers are not kicked out of the program in September.

Sincerely,

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