Duckworth Reacts to VA Retreating from Rulemaking That Threatens to Prevent Veterans from Seeking or Accessing the Health Coverage They Earned

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC)—today released the following statement after U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins announced the VA would be “halting enforcement” of its new interim final rule that puts millions of Veterans’ disability ratings and care at risk and shockingly disincentivizes our nation’s heroes from both seeking earned coverage for service-connected disabilities and following recommended treatments. This comes less than 24 hours after Duckworth demanded Collins rescind and apologize for implementing this shameful rule change.

“Just the other day, Secretary Collins described the grave concerns over this new rule that I, my Democratic colleagues, numerous VSOs and a multitude of Veterans raised as ‘fake news.’ Now, he’s backtracking on this disastrous rule change—because he knows it could be used to harm our heroes’ access to care, and because Veterans across the country called him on his bullshit.

“It’s deeply troubling that VA will only be ‘halting enforcement’ of its disastrous new rule. If Secretary Collins truly takes our Veterans’ concerns seriously—as he claims—then he would rescind the rule entirely. I’m going to keep the pressure up and do everything in my power to deter the VA from ever again implementing this shameful backdoor to cutting our heroes’ benefits.”

Three days ago, the VA shamefully circumvented the normal rulemaking process and implemented without public comment a new interim final rule that would change the way the VA determines disability rating from measuring the disability itself to measuring how the disability presents during a specific appointment—meaning if a Veterans is actively treating their injuries and their symptoms appear improved in that snapshot of time, that Veteran could receive a lower disability rating than they would have without treatment.

The PACT Act was a historic, overwhelmingly bipartisan victory that enabled Veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits and similar hazardous environments during their service—which can lead to cancer and other devastating ailments—to finally get the care they need covered by the VA. But in order to claim this new coverage, a Veteran would need a new disability review, which would take place under the new rule and could counterintuitively result in Veteran’s disability rating actually being downgraded despite Congress’s clear intent in the PACT Act.

Duckworth has been a fierce leader and advocate for improving our Veterans’ and servicemembers’ access to the care they need. Last week, she led Senate Democrats in demanding VA Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reverse the VA’s new draconian abortion ban. Last September, she reintroduced legislation that would improve Veterans’ access to contraception and increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness for contraceptive products at the VA. A few weeks prior, Duckworth sent a letter to VA Secretary Collins demanding he block ICE from stealing VA resources at Hines VA Hospital in Chicago.

Duckworth also joined U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in reintroducing legislation to help make it easier for our Veterans who struggle with infertility to build their families. Earlier last year, Duckworth railed against the Trump Administration for indiscriminately firing Veterans Crisis Line workers and introduced her Protect Veteran Jobs Act with U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) to reinstate the thousands of Veterans who were fired in Trump’s mass layoffs—an effort Republicans shamefully blocked in March.

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