{"id":7438,"date":"2025-11-10T15:13:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:13:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:13:57","slug":"ahead-of-veterans-day-sec-collins-vows-to-keep-improving-va-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON <\/strong>\u2014 VA Secretary Doug Collins released the following statement ahead of Veterans Day 2025:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica\u2019s Veterans have made our country \u2013 and our military \u2013 the greatest in the world. On Veterans Day, we honor these patriots, celebrate them for protecting our freedoms and salute them for keeping us safe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs. I am proud of the work we\u2019ve done under President Trump to transform VA from a bureaucratic organization to a service organization, cutting red tape and placing Veterans at the center of everything we do along the way. And we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Key VA accomplishments during the second Trump Administration include:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The backlog\u00a0of Veterans waiting for VA benefits is down more than 49%\u00a0since Jan. 20, 2025, after it increased 24% during the Biden Administration.<\/li>\n<li>VA is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-processes-more-claims-in-a-single-year-than-ever-before\/\">processing record numbers of disability claims<\/a>, reaching an all-time fiscal-year high of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecVetAffairs\/status\/1973156491705172423\">three million claims processed by Sept. 30<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>VA has opened <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecVetAffairs\/status\/1980259734302118127\">20 new health care clinics<\/a>, expanding access for Veterans around the country.<\/li>\n<li>Since Jan. 20, VA has offered Veterans more than 1.4 million appointments outside of normal operating hours. These early-morning, evening and weekend appointments are giving Veterans more timely and convenient options for care.<\/li>\n<li>VA is spending <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-to-spend-additional-800m-on-infrastructure-improvements-this-year\/\">an additional $800 million<\/a> on infrastructure improvements to ensure department facilities provide safe and effective patient care.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The additional funds will come from savings gleaned from various VA reform efforts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>VA has made it <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-offers-yearlong-community-care-authorizations-for-30-services\/\">easier<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-makes-it-easier-for-veterans-to-use-community-care\/\">faster<\/a>\u00a0for VA-enrolled Veterans to access care from non-VA providers at the department\u2019s expense.<\/li>\n<li>VA has implemented\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-announces-major-survivor-benefits-reforms\/\">major reforms<\/a>\u00a0to make it easier for survivors to get benefits, after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2025\/03\/19\/politics\/veteran-suicides-va-benefits-invs\" rel=\"noopener\">serious problems<\/a>\u00a0during the Biden Administration.<\/li>\n<li>VA is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-names-nine-additional-facilities-that-will-deploy-federal-ehr-in-2026\/\">accelerating the deployment<\/a>\u00a0of its integrated electronic health record system, after the program was nearly dormant for almost two years under the Biden Administration.<\/li>\n<li>VA partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to identify and recover <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-cms-partner-to-identify-and-recover-106m-in-duplicate-billing\/\">$106 million in duplicate billing<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>In fiscal year 2025, VA permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans \u2013 the most since FY2019.<\/li>\n<li>VA has brought tens of thousands of employees\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-announces-return-to-in-person-work-policy\/\">back to the office<\/a>, where we can work better as a team to serve Veterans.<\/li>\n<li>VA has <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-terminates-union-contracts-for-most-bargaining-unit-employees\/\">terminated union contracts for most bargaining unit employees<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-redirects-millions-in-wasteful-union-spending-back-to-veterans\/\">redirected millions in wasteful union spending back to Veterans<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>VA\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei\/\">ended DEI at the department<\/a>, reversing the divisive Biden-era policies and stopping more than $14 million in DEI spending.<\/li>\n<li>VA is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-to-phase-out-treatment-for-gender-dysphoria\/\">phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria<\/a>. Frankly, this commonsense reform should have been done years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/ahead-of-veterans-day-sec-collins-vows-to-keep-improving-va-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-news","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Its Veterans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4bf835f8c5375ef33978f3169f311668\"},\"headline\":\"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/vet-456-37.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"News &amp; VA Updates\",\"Trump\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438\",\"name\":\"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/vet-456-37.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"\\\"Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/vet-456-37.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/vet-456-37.png\",\"width\":831,\"height\":831},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?p=7438#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Its Veterans\",\"description\":\"Veterans news, benefits, health and community resources\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Its Veterans\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/its-veterans-six-service-branches-flag-header-v2-2026-09-18.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/its-veterans-six-service-branches-flag-header-v2-2026-09-18.jpg\",\"width\":2172,\"height\":724,\"caption\":\"Its Veterans\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4bf835f8c5375ef33978f3169f311668\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/itsveterans.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans","description":"\"Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans","og_description":"\"Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438","og_site_name":"Its Veterans","article_published_time":"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf835f8c5375ef33978f3169f311668"},"headline":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services","datePublished":"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438"},"wordCount":477,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vet-456-37.png","articleSection":["News &amp; VA Updates","Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438","url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438","name":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services - Its Veterans","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vet-456-37.png","datePublished":"2025-11-10T15:13:57+00:00","description":"\"Keeping the promises America has made to its Veterans is the sole purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vet-456-37.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vet-456-37.png","width":831,"height":831},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7438#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ahead of Veterans Day, Sec. Collins vows to keep improving VA services"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/","name":"Its Veterans","description":"Veterans news, benefits, health and community resources","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#organization","name":"Its Veterans","url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/its-veterans-six-service-branches-flag-header-v2-2026-09-18.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/its-veterans-six-service-branches-flag-header-v2-2026-09-18.jpg","width":2172,"height":724,"caption":"Its Veterans"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf835f8c5375ef33978f3169f311668","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/10da73410d092638799e3fa777bd59a474d7c9d9c61105a38c73dd46c050c34f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/itsveterans.com"],"url":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}