BUDZINSKI IN WASHINGTON TIMES: OUR VETERANS DESERVE HEALTH RESOURCES THEY CAN COUNT ON
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This morning, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) published an opinion piece in The Washington Times discussing ways to improve health resources for veterans. The piece highlights the importance of centering veterans’ voices and how the Trump administration’s layoffs and research cuts at VA threaten access to care.
Budzinski writes, “Uncertainty doesn’t improve efficiency; rather, it erodes employee morale and veteran trust, and undermines VA’s mission of delivering world-class care and benefits to those who served our nation in uniform… If we want the VA to be efficient, we need to be putting our resources where they are most impactful. That means gathering veterans’ feedback through my Women Veterans Advisory Council and the VEO, and it means investing in VA research that leads to more affordable and effective treatments for a range of health issues.
The full piece is available HERE and below:
Our veterans deserve health resources they can count on
By Rep. Nikki Budzinski
No two veterans have the same experience during service or during their transition to civilian life. But there is one common thread: the duty we have as Americans and especially as Members of Congress to support them when they come home.
When I first convened my Women Veterans Advisory Council last year, I was shocked by the members’ honesty. We had a raw and difficult conversation about a range of topics including adjusting to civilian life after years of active duty, dealing with PTSD, and living as a survivor of military sexual trauma (MST).
In retrospect, their strength was unsurprising; after all, this was a group of brave, bold women who have dedicated themselves to advocating for the veteran community just as they dedicated themselves to serving our country. With these women so driven to make their voices heard, the question quickly became: how do we channel their lived experiences into real change?
I had my mission. As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, my Women Veterans Advisory Council has been invaluable to inform my policy making here in Washington, D.C. Hearing their stories of how navigating the VA can be retraumatizing for veterans who experienced MST, I introduced a bipartisan bill to improve training for VA employees who handle those claims. I also introduced legislation that would require VA to conduct proactive outreach about mental health services, reducing the burden veterans face to seek out support on their own.
These kinds of common-sense policies are possible because of the feedback we get from veterans themselves. The Veterans Experience Office (VEO), created in 2015, gathers feedback directly from veterans, their families, and caregivers on their experience with VA services. It has been instrumental in improving veterans’ trust in VA, which reached an all-time high in 2024. It’s why I also introduced the Improving Veterans’ Experience Act which would codify the VEO as a permanent office at VA.
Investing in resources like the VEO is crucial to make VA work better for our veterans. But right now, so many of these resources are under attack. In June, the Trump Administration announced they would be slashing the VA workforce by nearly 30,000 this year in the name of “efficiency.” While this was a U-turn from earlier announcements of cuts of around 80,000 employees, this announcement still has sent shockwaves through the veteran community. People are scared and confused about how their care and their services could be affected. Uncertainty doesn’t improve efficiency; rather, it erodes employee morale and veteran trust, and undermines VA’s mission of delivering world-class care and benefits to those who served our nation in uniform.
Aside from reductions in force for a historically understaffed department, the Administration had previously issued guidance to block certain “trigger words” in VA grants, including “women,” “genders,” and “female.” Women are the fastest growing demographic among the veteran population, and research into their unique needs is already underfunded. We need to be putting more resources not less toward understanding how military service affects reproductive health, the risk of breast cancer, and other conditions specifically affecting women. That’s not about being “woke,” it’s about making sure every veteran can get the best quality care.
This isn’t a partisan issue. Alongside my Republican colleague Rep. Young Kim of California, I sent a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins urging him to continue critical health research focused on women veterans. We were also able to secure a provision in the recent VA appropriations bill that would require VA to report to Congress on how it’s addressing the research gap affecting women veterans.
If we want the VA to be efficient, we need to be putting our resources where they are most impactful. That means gathering veterans’ feedback through my Women Veterans Advisory Council and the VEO, and it means investing in VA research that leads to more affordable and effective treatments for a range of health issues.
So let’s keep listening and working together to find pragmatic solutions to the challenges veterans face every day, from accessing mental health care to filing disability claims. We owe our nation’s heroes nothing less.
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