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() As a government shutdown began Wednesday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told the pause will negatively affect many U.S. veterans.
“Many of them work in the federal government. Many of them have services provided to them after they’ve gotten out through the federal government,” Collins said on “Morning in America.” “And this shutdown simply is going to be a hindrance into getting that help here at the VA.”
He clarified that VA centers and hospitals would remain open, but said some career, transition and communication services wouldn’t be available during the shutdown.
“It cuts out our ability to communicate, mass communication, through our public affairs and through our communication devices. You know, those are the kind of things that are helping the vulnerable, the fringe veterans, who need our help to be reached,” Collins added.
Collins, a former Republican congressman in Georgia, denounced the funding bill faceoff leading to the shutdown as nothing more than a “political ploy” from Senate Democrats.
“This is veterans and non-veterans alike, who are now dealing with a government that is being dysfunctional and held hostage by a group that says they don’t want to even keep it open for seven weeks,” he said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that as many as 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed during the shutdown, including at the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Military members, FBI agents, air traffic controllers and intelligence officers will keep working through the shutdown.
‘s Tom Dempsey and Anna Kutz contributed to this report.