In the last year of the Biden administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs inaugurated an effort to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion principles that would outlast their time in power.
In January 2024, the VA&#8217;s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Council met to discuss the results of a survey, wherein employees were asked to identify &#8220;pain points&#8221; connected to their individual identities — based on race, gender identity, and a number of other factors — in order to further embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the agency.
The discussion centered on &#8220;identity insights&#8221; and was designed to &#8220;improve employee experience,&#8221; records obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America reveal.
Just under 300 participants identified some 5,710 &#8220;pain points&#8221; that ranged from complaints about a colleague making an &#8220;inappropriate comment&#8221; to concerns that office holiday decorations excluded certain religious preferences. Other &#8220;pain points&#8221; were centered on general workplace environment and feeling that other employees did not understand certain sensitivities connected to those identity characteristics.
The 2024 meeting, which was planned three years earlier, began as a partnership between the Veterans Experience Office&#8217;s Employee Experience Organizational Management Directorate and the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion to improve employee experience by addressing the &#8220;pain points&#8221; they experienced in the workplace based on their identities.
Those identities — in addition to race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity — divided participants along religious lines and listed separate categories for Baby Boomers, Generation X-ers, Millennials, and Generation Z employees as well.
Of the 281 who were interviewed, only 3% answered based on only one identifier. Nearly one-fourth (24%) selected two identities, and 39% selected three. Of the remaining participants, 21% chose four identities, 11% chose five, and 2% chose six.
Following the late January meeting, the Council recommended a series of steps designed to make the VA a more receptive place for employees to express their &#8220;whole, authentic identity.&#8221;
&#8220;The three most pressing data fields that would benefit from a redesign as having emerged from the Identity Insights project include &#8216;gender,&#8217; &#8216;sexual orientation,&#8217; and &#8216;race,&#8217; as these categories either do not exist or do not exhaustively provide inclusive options for employees to holistically and accurately self-identify,&#8221; the study advised.
Another recommendation was for a &#8220;streamlined escalation pathway&#8221; for employees to resolve identity-based complaints — particularly &#8220;in the event of mistreatment, including reporting I*DEA issues, harassment, and general concerns with conduct in the workplace.&#8221;
Those complaints, the study indicated, could stem from interactions between employees, between employees and supervisors, and even between employees and the veterans they serve — with emphasis placed on the potential for veterans to create &#8220;pain points&#8221; that impact employees.
The study also suggested there should be an avenue for dealing with &#8220;the impacts of negative customer experiences on employees such as health practitioners providing additional coverage when LGBTQ+ Veterans are denied care by a colleague&#8221; — but did not provide evidence that such denial of care was happening within the VA system.
Almost one year to the day after that meeting — on January 27, 2025 — the VA under President Donald Trump had already begun to <a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei/">root out the DEI initiatives</a> within the department.
&#8220;Under President Trump, VA is laser-focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,&#8221; VA Director of Media Affairs Morgan Ackley explained. &#8220;We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission.&#8221;
In the year since, under Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, the agency has <a href="https://department.va.gov/2025accomplishments/">cut $14 million</a> in spending that went solely to DEI-focused initiatives and training. It is unclear whether the recommendations made during that meeting were ever implemented, and if so, what the new administration may have in place to put a stop to the process.

Department of Veterans Affairs

How The Biden Admin Tried To Keep The VA Woke After It Left Town

How The Biden Admin Tried To Embed DEI In Dept Of Veterans Affairs On The way Out The Door

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Donald Trump

Doug Collins

Joe Biden

Veterans

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins said that after a weekend of violent riots — during which property was vandalized and police officers and federal agents were targeted by protesters in the streets of Los Angeles — a local VA clinic was forced to close its doors.
Collins issued the statement on Monday afternoon, one day after President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops to the California city in an effort to get the riots under control and protect the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who were attempting to enforce federal immigration laws.
The VA secretary shared a photo showing the side of the Los Angeles VA building spray-painted with threats and profanities aimed at federal officials, adding, &#8220;To the violent mobs in Los Angeles rioting in support of illegal immigrants and against the rule of law – Your actions are interfering with Veterans’ health care.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
To ensure the safety of Veterans and employees, <a href="https://twitter.com/DeptVetAffairs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeptVetAffairs</a> had to make the difficult decision to temporarily close its LA Ambulatory Care Center. The clinic will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so, and in the meantime, in-person appointments at the facility are being…
— VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1932141182404186216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;To ensure the safety of Veterans and employees, @DeptVetAffairs had to make the difficult decision to temporarily close its LA Ambulatory Care Center. The clinic will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so, and in the meantime, in-person appointments at the facility are being rescheduled or shifted to telehealth,&#8221; he added.
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In an effort to contain the riots, the Trump administration also deployed a number of U.S. Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton, some of whom were expected to relieve the National Guard troops who had already been in the city for nearly two days. Of the 2,000 National Guard troops who were initially deployed to Los Angeles, only approximately 300 have been actively engaged on the streets.

Senate Nomination Hearing Held For Doug Collins To Be Veterans Affairs Secretary

Veterans Affairs Sec Says ‘Violent Mobs In Los Angeles’ Forced Veterans Clinic To Close

Health Care

Military

U.S.

Veterans Affairs (VA)

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins took CNN apart in a lengthy X thread on Monday, ripping into the network over what he said was a fake story that the network ran with despite his repeated assertions that there was no truth to it.
Collins laid out what happened in a series of posts, saying that Brian Todd — a regular correspondent for &#8220;The Situation Room&#8221; — had reached out to him several times for comments on stories that were based on &#8216;false, deliberately leaked &#8216;information,&#8221;&#8221; and had published a story even after he was told that there was no truth to the &#8220;scoop&#8221; he thought he had.
&#8220;True stories about the fake news: @CNN edition,&#8221; Collins began his thread.
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True stories about the fake news: <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> edition. 🧵
&mdash; VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1906859696360690050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Every few days, a guy named @BrianToddCNN reaches out to us, asking for the department’s response to whatever fake controversy VA’s critics are pushing. I’m not sure what his actual beat is, but his specialty seems to be regurgitating pre-packaged opposition research VA critics prepare for him,&#8221; Collins said.
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Late last week, Brian struck again, claiming to have a scoop about a proposal to “automate VA call centers.” In reality, no such plans exist. Brian’s scoop was based on false, deliberately leaked “information” from people who aren’t involved in our planning process. In other…
&mdash; VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1906859701859491850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Late last week, Brian struck again, claiming to have a scoop about a proposal to &#8216;automate VA call centers.&#8217; In reality, no such plans exist. Brian’s scoop was based on false, deliberately leaked &#8216;information&#8217; from people who aren’t involved in our planning process,&#8221; Collins continued. &#8220;In other words, Brian was the target of a disinformation operation designed to generate fake news.&#8221;
Collins went on to say that even though officials at the VA had made it clear to Todd that &#8220;his allegations were not credible,&#8221; their warnings had gone unheeded and CNN ran the story anyway. Efforts to get Todd to connect the VA to his editor were also ignored, but they eventually were able to get through.
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That editor and another CNN senior executive refused to retract the fake story. Instead, they insisted everything would be OK if we just gave them a statement responding to the story’s fake allegations. What happened to the journalistic principle of verifying something is true…
&mdash; VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1906859709199446022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;That editor and another CNN senior executive refused to retract the fake story. Instead, they insisted everything would be OK if we just gave them a statement responding to the story’s fake allegations,&#8221; Collins added. &#8220;What happened to the journalistic principle of verifying something is true before publication?&#8221;
Collins concluded with a jab at the network over the recent defamation case that cost them millions, saying, &#8220;With standards like these, it’s easy to see why a jury recently found CNN liable for defamation and ordered the network to pay $5 million in damages.&#8221;
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/wolfblitzer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wolfblitzer</a> – Please hold your employee, <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianToddCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrianToddCNN</a>, to a higher standard. Thank you (7/7)
&mdash; VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1906859713960034562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;@wolfblitzer – Please hold your employee,@BrianToddCNN, to a higher standard. Thank you,&#8221; Collins said.

VA Secretary Dismantles CNN Over Fake Story On ‘Automated Call Centers’

VA Secretary Dismantles CNN Over Fake Story On 'Automated Call Centers'

Media

Politics

Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins made it clear that he was not going to play along when CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins tried to make his Wednesday evening interview all about the Signal chat between Trump officials that inadvertently included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Secretary Collins attempted to steer the conversation back to the VA and to issues impacting veterans, but the CNN anchor quickly made it obvious that she was not going to let go of the Signal story — so the former Georgia Congressman flipped the interview on its head and questioned her instead.
WATCH:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecVetAffairs</a> torches Fake News CNN&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kaitlancollins</a>: &quot;Since you undoubtedly don&#39;t want to talk about the VA &#8230; I would like to know why CNN is hostile to veterans — especially one in Florida, where you just had a $5 million defamation suit&#8230;&quot; <a href="https://t.co/fwnkeg10Zn">pic.twitter.com/fwnkeg10Zn</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1905077744607637576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Do you believe that a mistake was made here, though, to have this conversation, to add a reporter, and to have it on an unsupported, unclassified group setting?&#8221; the anchor asked.
&#8220;Kaitlan, as I&#8217;ve just told you, I just answered the question,&#8221; Secretary Collins replied. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t part of it and I&#8217;m not going to speculate more than what the president has already talked about or those who have been involved have talked about — but I&#8217;d love to talk about the veterans.&#8221;
The CNN anchor would not let it go, however, and tried again: &#8220;And I do have questions about the veterans, but given what we saw with the group chat and how this was used. You are a member of the cabinet, you obviously know these other members, several of them who were in there. Is this typical for the cabinet to have conversations over Signal? Is this something that you use?&#8221;
&#8220;All right, well, Kaitlan, since you undoubtedly don&#8217;t want to talk about the VA, I have a question as VA Secretary,&#8221; Secretary Collins said. &#8220;I want to ask you, because I&#8217;ve been curious about this because my job is to take care of veterans, and I would like to know why CNN is hostile to veterans — especially one in Florida, where you just had a $5 million defamation suit taking offense at a veteran who was trying to help people. In fact, one of your employees actually said, &#8216;We&#8217;re gonna nail him.'&#8221;
&#8220;I have a question for you, Kaitlan,&#8221; Secretary Collins continued. &#8220;Is that employee still employed? Are you really concerned about veterans? So if we don&#8217;t want to talk about veterans now, you want to talk about everything else, I&#8217;d like to hear from CNN as the veterans&#8217; cabinet secretary, why CNN seems to have a problem with veterans.&#8221;
The CNN anchor would not answer his question. Instead, she tried to go back to the Signal chat again: &#8220;My question was about whether or not you, as a member of the cabinet, use this —&#8221;
She went on to claim that she did have questions regarding veterans, but Secretary Collins wasn&#8217;t buying it.
&#8220;No, Kaitlan, what you want to do is talk about a subject that I&#8217;ve already answered,&#8221; he shot back. &#8220;And if you want to continue this, like this, that&#8217;s fine, but there are VA employees that are working very hard. There are veterans who get their care from the VA and they get their benefits from the VA, and it does me no good to speculate on something that I&#8217;ve already asked and answered. So I&#8217;ve answered your question, why don&#8217;t you answer mine?&#8221;

Doug Collins Eats Kaitlan Collins’ Lunch Over Signal Chat SNAFU

Doug Collins Eats Kaitlan Collins' Lunch Over Signal Chat SNAFU

Kaitlan Collins

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Doug Collins

How The Biden Admin Tried To Keep The VA Woke After It Left Town

Veterans Affairs Sec Says ‘Violent Mobs In Los Angeles’ Forced Veterans Clinic To Close

VA Secretary Dismantles CNN Over Fake Story On ‘Automated Call Centers’

Doug Collins Eats Kaitlan Collins’ Lunch Over Signal Chat SNAFU