Doug Collins is officially the new VA Secretary Doug Collins; his message to veterans & VA employees: "... we’re going to do a better job reaching Veterans at risk of homelessness or suicide – especially those who have had no contact with VA." news.va.gov/press-room/sec…

Servicemembers sue Trump administration over transgender military service ban, saying it violates their constitutional rights. Two suits have been filed: abcnews.go.com/Politics/servi…

Trump’s cutting back of the federal workforce has a huge impact on military families wapo.st/3WPsDn0

VA dismisses 1,000 employees including researchers working on cancer treatment, opioid addiction, prosthetics, and burn pit exposure; however, 42,000 of the probationary workers are in "mission critical" roles and won't be fired theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f…

⁦The VFW National HQ⁩, ⁦Disabled American Veterans (DAV)⁩, and ⁦Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)⁩ published their recommendations for the VA budget, including increases for clinical social workers, suicide prevention, dental care, employee vaccines, and more: vfw.org/media-and-even…

In case you missed it: VA SEC Collins is also overseeing the Office of Government Ethics & Office of Special Counsel while the new administration reorganizes; some worry it is too much with VA responsibilities, & given the inherent conflict of interest: militarytimes.com/veterans/2025/…

Wondering about who qualifies for back GI Bill benefits since the Supreme Court ruling last year? Here is an explainer military.com/benefits/va-re…

DOGE in practice: Disabled Army veteran who has 4 kids and did 3 tours overseas is fired from his job at Bronx VA hospital

"With all due respect, ma'am, it's going to kill us." - Mr.Lipphardt, Commander-in-Chief, Veterans of Foreign Wars

VA plans to lay off as many as 83,000 employees this year despite PACT Act resulting in over 740K new vets enrolled for care as of fall 2024, plus 4.17 million claims govexec.com/workforce/2025… via GovExec

Veterans service organizations castigated the government for sweeping cuts of federal jobs that are hitting veterans who represent nearly one-third of the civilian government workforce and receive their medical care at the Veterans Affairs. stripes.com/veterans/2025-…

An op ed from VA Secretary Doug Collins: “VA was never perfect, and it will never be perfect. But we can and will make it better… But we will be making major changes. So get used to it.” thehill.com/opinion/white-…

Supreme Court upholds decision the CAVC and Fed Circuit Ct do not have to review VA’s use of the benefit-of-the-doubt rule. military.com/daily-news/202…

Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of presidents, generals, Medal of Honor recipients and more than 400,000 service members and their families, has purged its website of material focused on Black, Hispanic, and female troops buried there, officials confirmed

VA is rolling out the new electronic health records system faster than expected; a GAO report released this week documents some remaining kinks in Millennium, the $16+ billion system that will ensure VA records are integrated with DOD. The report: gao.gov/assets/gao-25-…

ICYMI: Trump appointed new members to the U.S. Naval Academy's Board of Visitors, including former press secretary Sean Spicer and Congressman Ronny Jackson, who is also a former White House physician. thebaltimorebanner.com/education/high…

As the USS Gravely deploys to the Gulf in its "commitment to national security & safeguarding our territorial integrity ..." (navy.mil/Press-Office/N…), nearly 10K troops are at or headed to the Southern border. For a rundown of units: taskandpurpose.com/news/military-…

"VA will not offer cross-sex hormone therapy to Veterans" but those vets who are already receiving hormone therapy from VA, or if they are receiving such care in the military when they separate and move to VA for health care, will still receive treatment nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-po…

Lawmakers try again on a bill that would allow concurrent pay of retirement & VA disability; while it could cost $9.75 bil over the next 10 years, the argument is that these are 2 different types of pay and vets have earned both Military.com military.com/daily-news/202…

A lower court stopped the transgender ban during the litigation over whether it is constitutional, and the Supreme Court overruled that injunction today. There was no explanation for the decision but the administration may move forward with the ban. abcnews.go.com/Politics/supre…