The Administration · The Cabinet
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
A Georgia pastor, military chaplain and former congressman who defended Trump in his first impeachment and now runs the veterans' health and benefits system, where staff cuts and a reorganization have drawn fire from veterans' groups.
Doug Collins was born in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1966 and graduated from North Georgia College in 1988. 9 He trained as a Baptist minister, earning a divinity degree in 1996, and led a church in his home county for about a decade. 9 He served as a chaplain in the Navy and later in the Air Force Reserve, deploying to Iraq with the 94th Airlift Wing. 1 He added a law degree in 2007. 9
He sat in the Georgia House from 2007 to 2013 and in the U.S. House from 2013 to 2021, representing northeast Georgia. 9 As the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee he was one of Donald Trump's leading defenders during the 2019 impeachment. 9 He gave up his seat to run for the Senate in 2020 and finished third in the first round. 9 He then worked as a legal counsel to Trump. 1
The Senate confirmed him 77-23 on February 4, 2025, making him the first veteran of the post-September 11 wars to lead the department. 1 2 Within weeks the department dismissed more than 1,000 probationary workers and Collins floated cutting as many as 83,000 jobs. 4 6 He said then, and has said since, that health care and benefits would not be touched and that cuts would fall on bureaucracy. 3 4
By January 2026 officials said about 30,000 positions had been shed, while senators cited reports of more than 40,000 departures. 5 Collins presented a plan to reorganize the health system, shrinking 18 regional networks to five, and told senators the greater risk lay in doing nothing. 5 In February 2026 a new disability rule that veterans' groups said would penalize those who take medication set off a backlash, and the department reversed it. 6 7
He remains in office. 8 In March 2026 he said the department had processed three million claims, cut the average wait from 137 days to 77 and planned to shorten the disability application from nearly 18 pages to three or four. 7 Trump named him the designated survivor for the State of the Union address in both 2025 and 2026. 7 9
The acts and events that have defined the post so far, oldest first.
The department dismissed more than 1,000 probationary employees and cancelled $14 million in diversity programs; Collins told the Disabled American Veterans conference that benefits and health care would not be compromised. 4
Presented the health system reorganization plan known as RISE to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee: regional networks cut from 18 to five and a new operations center. Officials said about 30,000 positions had been reduced. 5
Said the department would cut the first disability application from nearly 18 pages to three or four, and reported the claims backlog down by more than 100,000. 7
What critics, courts or investigators have said, and the answer given. An allegation is not a finding.
Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said indiscriminate mass layoffs could put veterans' health care and benefits at serious risk. 3
Their side: Collins said the layoffs affected only bureaucracy, that doctors, nurses and frontline staff were protected, and that he planned to hire more full-time physicians. 3
Senators of both parties questioned the reorganization. Sen. Angus King said the department's lists of cancelled contracts were inaccurate and overstated; Sen. Maggie Hassan said the department has a trust deficit; Sen. Richard Blumenthal criticized slow answers to Congress; Sen. Ruben Gallego cited 51-day waits for mental health care in Arizona. 5
Their side: Collins said the plan is not a layoff, denied it follows Project 2025, cited a national average wait of 18.8 days for new mental health patients and promised facility-level data. 5
Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars objected to the disability rule, and Rep. Mark Takano, the senior Democrat on the House veterans committee, demanded it be rescinded. 6
Their side: Collins at first dismissed the criticism on social media as false, then reversed course within 24 hours, acknowledging the uproar among veterans. 6
Quotes from our stories, each matched word for word against its source before it ran.
“For veterans living with PTSD, we owe them both urgency and the best science we can produce”
“There’s actually an excitement about what’s going on”
The Trump administration is funding groundwork for U.S. research on ibogaine, an illegal psychedelic that some veterans back for PTSD. The money does not pay for patient studies yet, and the drug carries serious heart risks.
Veterans criticized the president's Iran war as the Pentagon counted 23 U.S. service members dead and 865 wounded. Several say Congress never authorized it.
Two years into Trump's second term, the VA decides disability claims in about half the time. Its staff is smaller, and reviewers are sending back more decisions for errors.
ProPublica reports that staff losses under Trump have left a New Jersey veterans hospital without key specialists. A VA watchdog report points to shortages across the system.
After the VA shut down a 2.5% mortgage rescue program in May 2025, more than 15,000 veterans saw their monthly house payments go up by at least $150, an NPR review of VA data found. The Republican who led the push to end the program is on Tuesday's ballot.
Current and former members say the Department of Veterans Affairs has stopped filling seats and scheduling meetings for several of its outside advisory committees. The Gulf War illness research panel is down to four of its 14 seats, and the women veterans committee has not met since 2024.
File checked Nov. 13, 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Tell the desk.
