1 day Ago By Ryan Morgan
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) announced on April 1 that he would impose a blanket hold on all Department of Veterans Affairs nominees in protest of a plan to cut more than 80,000 jobs at the department.
Despite Collins’s efforts to reassure the public, Gallego has continued to express concerns that the cuts will negatively impact the services on which Veterans Affairs beneficiaries rely. Often, the U.S.
Senate advances multiple nominees through the confirmation process at once, in what’s known as an en bloc action. Such an en bloc action requires the Senate to act by unanimous consent. On occasion, senators have imposed a blanket hold on such en bloc actions as a means of protesting a disfavored policy.
Should a senator impose such a hold, the body can still confirm nominees, but it has to do so one by one in a slower and more deliberative process. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.
) imposed a blanket hold on all Defense Department nominees in 2023 in protest of a policy that allowed the department to fund leave and travel expenses for personnel seeking abortions. Tuberville contended that the Defense Department policy violated the Hyde Amendment, which broadly prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. The Department of Veterans Affairs has 13 positions requiring Senate confirmation, according to the Partnership for Public Service.
Collins currently holds one of the positions, while Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence holds a second. President Donald Trump has chosen nominees for five other positions in the department. In his March 5 video statement, Collins outlined how the Department of Veterans Affairs would perform more efficiently, including by reviewing its various contracts.
He said upon reviewing just 2 percent of the department’s contracts, the department has managed to eliminate 600 agreements that he said were not mission-critical or duplicative, and would save the department around $900 million. Veterans Affairs press secretary Pete Kasperowicz emailed a statement to The Epoch Times on Tuesday about Gallego’s move. “Imagine how much better off Veterans would be if lawmakers like Sen.
Gallego cared as much about fixing VA as they do about protecting the department’s broken bureaucracy,” Kasperowicz said..
