Senate Veterans panel reviews 25 bills amid VA bed closures

Chairman Moran focused significant attention on the Leavenworth, Kansas VA Medical Center, which had closed half of its intensive care unit beds and half of its surgical beds due to a staffing shortage — a decision made without advance notice to Congress. Moran told VA witnesses he 'was not notified or informed of this until a week later and am still waiting to learn all of the relevant details.' He asked for a full briefing from national and facility-level VA leadership on how the situation developed.

Dr. Mark A. Koeniger, the VA's Acting Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Patient Care Services, acknowledged the staffing issue and described the bed closures as a 'temporary issue' driven by reduced staffing. He committed to ensuring staffing levels support full veteran access but did not provide a timeline for restoring the closed beds.

The Leavenworth situation provided Moran's direct rationale for S. 4400, the Optimizing the VA Workforce for Veterans Act, which he co-introduced with Sen. Angus King on the same day as the hearing. The bill would require the VA to develop, maintain, and submit to Congress a five-year strategic human capital plan aligning staffing with current and projected demand for services down to the local level.

It would also require advance Congressional notification before any significant staffing changes or workforce reductions. Moran stated the bill 'makes clear that the VA staffing strategy cannot be arbitrary' and that Congress needs visibility into staffing decisions before beds are closed and veterans lose access to care. King, an independent senator from Maine, co-sponsoring the bill with a Republican chairman underscored its bipartisan framing.

Margarita Devlin, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits at the Veterans Benefits Administration, led the first witness panel for VA. She highlighted the department's work implementing VA Secretary Collins' 'Veterans First' strategy and noted that 2025 was a record-breaking year for disability claims processing. Devlin testified that VA supports most of the bills under consideration, flagging opposition or concerns on three: S. 4140 (Carlton H.

Ingram Veterans Benefits Protection Act), S. 3098 (Presumptive CLARITY Act), and S. 3395 (Mammography Access for Veterans Act). On S.

4140, VA opposed the bill because the department said it had already implemented the Ingram court decision requiring consideration of medication in disability ratings for conditions like hypertension. On S. 3395, VA expressed concern that the bill could limit veterans' access to breast imaging through the community care program by introducing restrictions on how care is channeled.

Veterans Service Organizations testified in the second panel in support of most of the pending legislation. Brian Dempsey of the Wounded Warrior Project, Joseph R. Chenelly of AMVETS, and Jennifer Goodale of the Military Officers Association of America appeared together. VSO testimony typically serves as an independent check on VA's positions, reflecting the practical experiences of veterans navigating the claims, appeals, and care systems.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Ranking Member, engaged on the Presumptive CLARITY Act (S. 3098), which he introduced to require VA to publicly list conditions under consideration for toxic exposure presumptive status. He argued that veterans need to know what conditions the VA is reviewing so they can participate in the process — citing the PACT Act's implementation as requiring active veteran engagement.

The PACT Act of 2022 established the largest expansion of veterans' toxic exposure benefits in decades, and several bills before the committee were designed to address implementation gaps and emerging health needs under PACT. The hearing also touched on the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act 2.0, with VA noting that its budget request projected a year-over-year increase in pending Board of Veterans' Appeals appeals inventory for the first time since the original AMA overhaul — a sign that the reforms may need updating before a new backlog develops.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth raised the Maternal Health for Veterans Act, noting that women veterans face higher maternal mortality rates than non-veteran women and that the 2021 Duckworth-Collins Protecting Moms Who Served Act had codified maternity care coordination but gaps in implementation persist. The bill she planned to introduce would address ongoing oversight and funding for the VA's maternity care program.

S. 3993, the Reducing Arbitrary Barriers to Apprenticeship Act, introduced by Sen. Tim Sheehy, addressed barriers veterans face in accessing apprenticeship programs, which serve as a bridge between military service and civilian employment. S.

3591, the Thomas M. Conway Veterans Access to Resources in the Workplace Act, which VA deferred to the Department of Labor on, would expand workplace resources for veterans employed in the private sector. The breadth of the 25-bill agenda — from ALS benefits to outdoor rehabilitation to maternal health — involves the committee's role as a legislative intake point for veterans' community priorities that often do not receive standalone floor time. Most of the bills will need to pass out of committee before they can be scheduled for a full Senate vote, and many will require House companion legislation before reaching the president.