WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), in a hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC), questioned a Trump Administration nominee about the reckless approach it’s taking to contract and staff reductions at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA). In his exchange with John Bartrum, Nominee to be Under Secretary for Health, King reasoned that it is virtually impossible to make dramatic, across-the-board reductions with thought, care and precision while protecting care for veterans because of the speed in which the reductions are happening.

Senator King began, “I’ve done a little examination, this is full of contracts for nursing services, nursing home services you mentioned prosthetics, probably a dozen prosthetics contracts being canceled. It is hard for me to believe that all of these are unnecessary contracts. $13 billion worth of contracts. It worries me is that there seems to be a pattern of ready, fire, aim at Veterans’ Affairs. You started with hiring freeze applying to everybody, then, oh no, it doesn't apply to medical people. That was a good decision, but it should not have been, it shouldn't have been made in the first place. Then it was 83,000 people are going to be fired by the end of the year, now it is 30,000, not fired, but we are going to downsize by 30,000. And I just wonder if upon review, I can't believe all 16,000 of these contracts, and then the email, of course, lists three or four ones that we would all say, okay, those probably aren’t necessary but prosthetics contracts, nursing contracts, nursing home contracts, it really bothers me. Mr. Bartrum, you mentioned we don't have a good staffing model. That may well be true, but I think you should start with the staffing model and then decide what the right size of the staff is. Not start with 30,000 or a month ago, it was 83,000 and work backwards. Do you see what I'm saying? Analyze the staff, do the staffing model, determine what you need and then make those decisions instead of starting with what amounts to a quota, and reverse engineering. Give me some thoughts about that.

“Senator King, I don't disagree with the way using analytics to determine what you need for staffing, building to the staffing, which is why my earlier comment was, I really want to work on our staffing and what the staffing should be. On your question about the contracts, a lot of those we also found that we had multiple contracts in multiple areas for similar things and we could also consolidate into more regional and national contracts. Where you see some contracts that might be terminated on the list, there may be additional contracts expanded out or scope changed to renegotiate it into a regional contract because you have the same contractor in some cases providing service in certain areas,” Bartrum replied.

Senator King replied, “It is hard for me to believe in the time we have had in the last few months, this list of 16,000 contracts has had the kind of careful review that, I will predict, that a month or two from now there will be another memo saying, well, there are a bunch of contracts we are not going to cut or eliminate. I want to see more planning before the decisions are made that could so significantly affect veteran care.”

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, in a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins, Senator King joined his colleagues in urging for immediate action to secure veterans’ personal information provided by VA or other agencies to Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a measure that would protect millions of veterans’ medical records stored in VA’s computer systems. In addition, he helped pass the Veterans COLA Act, which increased benefits for 30,000 Maine veterans and their families.

Recently, Senator King introduced bipartisan legislation alongside SVAC Chairman Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) to improve care coordination for veterans who rely on both VA health care and Medicare. In February, Senator King was honored by the Disabled American Veterans as its 2025 Legislator of the Year. Last year, he was recognized by the Wounded Warrior Project as the 2024 Legislator of the Year for his “outstanding legislative effort and achievement to improve the lives of the wounded, ill, and injured veterans.” Senator King also recently joined his colleagues in raising concerns over proposed plans to terminate 83,000 VA employees, and participated in a special investigative SVAC hearing to question witnesses who were terminated due to DOGE cuts. In May, Senators King and Blumenthal wrote again to Secretary Collins demanding an explanation for DOGE cuts to cancel contracts at VA that would impact health care for Maine veterans.

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