Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and 25 of her colleagues to demand the Trump Administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) explain why it changed certain VA Medical Center bylaws in a way that could invite discrimination against veteran patients and health care providers.
The letter follows recent reporting detailing how the Trump Administration secretly changed guidelines in a way that could allow political affiliation or sexual orientation to serve as reasons for denial of health care for veterans or the hiring of medical professionals. Language that previously required VA providers to care for veterans regardless of politics, marital status, age, national origin, and disability has been removed from certain VA health care facilities’ medical bylaws. Language that also previously ensured decisions for who was able to be a part of VA’s medical staff were made without regard to political affiliation, marital status, age, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and union membership have been removed from certain VA facilities’ medical bylaws.
“We write today to request information regarding recent changes to patient and staff policies governing medical facilities within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),” wrote the Senators in a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins. “Having reviewed past and current versions of bylaws for multiple medical facilities within the Department, we have confirmed the Department made changes, in secret and without notification to the veterans you serve or to Congress, that could allow for discrimination in treating patients and hiring medical professionals.”
The senators continued highlighting the Administration’s unjustified changes: “While many of the previously specified traits that have been removed from VA facilities’ bylaws potentially remain protected under existing statutes, the message VA is sending by stripping explicit references to these criteria is still deeply disturbing. Allowing, let alone encouraging, this ambiguity opens the door for widespread discrimination. These changes invite uncertainty as to whether a patient can be denied access to their earned health care or whether a provider is considered unfit to serve veterans based on anything other than their expertise and credentials. Even the appearance of allowing discrimination directly violates VA’s own mission…”
The senators concluded by declaring it Collins’ responsibility as Secretary to explain why this Administration would strip certain anti-discrimination provisions from VA’s bylaws and publish clear and immediate assurances that the Department will not discriminate against patients or employees: “It is your duty to answer to veterans, the public, and Congress as to why VA is sowing confusion and potentially putting veterans at risk and jeopardizing the Department’s medical workforce, clinicians’ licensure, and accreditation of its medical facilities nationwide. We insist you publish proper justification and clarification of these changes so as to leave no uncertainty as to the Department’s protections for patients and employees against unlawful and unethical discrimination.”
The full text of the senators’ letter can be found here.
Senator Cortez Masto is a champion for our service members and veterans. She helped pass the PACT Act to ensure veterans suffering from toxic exposure in the line of duty get the medical care they need, and she worked across the aisle to get legislation helping veterans exposed to Agent Orange and expanding benefits for women veterans signed into law. The senator sent a letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Collins demanding he provide answers on the mass terminations of personnel across the VA, specifically those in Nevada, and how those terminations would impact services to Nevada veterans.
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