A Navy veteran and current chaplain in the Air Force Reserve is on track to be the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Doug Collins to the post this week, though critics question whether Collins may move to privatize VA services.
“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need,” Trump said on Thursday. “Thank you, Doug, for your willingness to serve our Country in this very important role!”
Collins is a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, in which he has served as a Baptist chaplain for two decades. He joined the Navy from August 1994 to June 1996 as a chaplain corps student, leaving the service as an ensign, according to the Navy. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Collins joined the Air Force Reserve as a chaplain and later deployed to Iraq.
A Baptist minister, Collins earned his master’s degree in divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996.
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He went on to serve in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021. In July 2020, he and fellow Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado wrote a letter to then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper objecting to the military limiting how many troops could attend worship services due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior advisor to VoteVets, said in a statement that Collins’ ultimate goal will be privatizing the VA.
Eaton claimed that Collins is supported by the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., which produced a series of policy recommendations called “Project 2025.” Those recommendations include bringing in more private companies for providing VA health care and other services, and increasing the budget for veterans to access private medical providers with the VA’s Community Care network.
“By taking a wrecking ball to the VA, as Project 2025 laid out, and now Donald Trump and Doug Collins will carry out, we most assuredly will discourage service in the future,” Eaton said. “That will leave us far less safe than we are today.”
Collins is the latest in a growing number of Global War on Terrorism Veterans whom Trump has selected for his team, including Vice President J.D. Vance, a Marine veteran; Pete Hegseth, who served in the Army National Guard; Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a retired Army National Guard colonel and Green Beret; and Tulsi Gabbard, an Army reservist.
John Byrnes, strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America, said Collins will focus on reform in the VA..
“Doug Collins has been vocal about fixing the broken VA health care system and ensuring veterans’ access to choice,” Byrnes said in a statement to Task & Purpose on Friday. “We look forward to working with the Trump administration’s next Secretary of Veterans Affairs to hold the VA accountable to meet the needs of our nation’s heroes so that no veteran is left behind waiting for care.”
Byrnes noted that Trump, during his first term as President, signed VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act into law in 2018. The law grants veterans access to in-network community providers if they cannot make an appointment with the VA within a certain amount of time or if they live a certain distance away from a VA facility.