U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, wrote on X: “This White House claims it’s the most transparent in history, yet for months I’ve asked the VA to share its list of the 585 contracts it claims to have canceled. But the best I’ve gotten is an incomplete list riddled with errors. It’s unacceptable and an insult to our veterans.”
As seen in the video below, the former Governor of Maine told Committee Chairman Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS): “I’m just sorry, Mr. Chairman, that it’s necessary to even have this hearing. This is the easiest thing in the world to tell us what the contracts are, what they cover, and then we can have an adult discussion about whether those contract cancellations are appropriate. Some may well be, others may well be profoundly harmful to veterans.”
This White House claims it’s the most transparent in history, yet for months I’ve asked the VA to share its list of the 585 contracts it claims to have canceled. But the best I’ve gotten is an incomplete list riddled with errors. It’s unacceptable and an insult to our veterans. pic.twitter.com/P4bGivobkk
— Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) June 10, 2025
King added: “We have the right, representing our constituents and our veterans, to know what this Department is doing. And for them to be obscuring these contracts and what they’re doing to me is an outrageous offense against our veterans.”
It’s not the first time the Veterans Affairs Department has been accused of neglecting and/or working around Congress. In May, at a Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee meeting, Ranking Member Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) asked President Trump’s Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins why in April he sent a notification to Congress – rather than a request for approval – when he moved agency funds from one program to another. (Collins is required by law to ask Congress for approval according to the appropriations act.)
When Collins would not confirm that he would follow the requirements outlined in appropriations act, Schultz addressed the Committee and said: “I just want to make clear that the Committee understands that the way this Secretary and this administration has interacted with Congress on moving hundreds of millions of dollars from one account to the next is unprecedented.”