Wyden, Merkley Demand Trump Administration Explain Changing VA Hospital Guidelines in Secret
The changes include potentially hiring medical professionals and giving veterans health care based on certain protected traits such as political affiliation and sexual orientation
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., said today they have joined their Senate colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump administration for secretly changing language in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) health facilities’ bylaws that could lead to discrimination against veteran patients and health care providers.
A recent report detailed the Trump administration’s secret plan to change guidelines that would leave VA providers and patients with ambiguity about whether certain protected traits – including political affiliation or sexual orientation – can serve as reasons for denying certain veterans health care and prohibiting medical professionals from being hired.
“We write today to request information regarding recent changes to patient and staff policies governing medical facilities within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 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 wrote to VA secretary Doug Collins.
The VA previously required providers to care for veterans regardless of politics, marital status, age, national origin, and disability. Language that ensured decisions for who could 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 has been removed from certain VA facilities’ medical bylaws.
The senators continued, “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 … 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.”
The letter was led by Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was signed by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and U.S. Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai’i, Angus King, I-Maine, Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Tim Kaine, D-Va., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Mark Warner, D-Va.
The full text of the letter is here,
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