Doug Collins, an Air Force reserve chaplain and former GOP congressman, was easily confirmed Tuesday to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary.
The Senate voted 77-23 to approve Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, giving the department a Senate-confirmed leader two weeks into the Trump administration.
Collins will now take over leadership of the VA at a time when it is dealing with budget woes brought by the expansion of both veterans eligible for VA care under the PACT Act and availability of private-sector care for veterans.
Read Next: Mental Health Providers in Tricare East Go Unpaid After Claims Processor Switch
He will also be charged with carrying out the VA's response to the dozens of executive orders President Donald Trump signed in his first weeks in office, such as those designed to gut the civil service and erase traces of minorities and women from the public sector.
Collins "has displayed to my colleagues and me that he is prepared to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs into the future and support the everchanging needs of our nation's veterans by making certain they receive the timely and quality health care and benefits they have rightfully earned," Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said in a statement after Tuesday's vote.
Collins glided through his confirmation process, particularly when compared to Trump's most controversial Cabinet picks such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Collins had a largely uneventful confirmation hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last month.
At the hearing, he vowed to preserve the VA's health-care system while also bolstering the private-sector care available to veterans using VA funding.
"We're going to fight for a strong VA," Collins said during the hearing. "I believe you can have a strong VA as it currently exists and have a community care aspect."
Another major challenge Collins is expected to face is the VA's $16 billion electronic health records overhaul that has been on hold for nearly two years because of safety concerns with glitches in the new program.
"We're looking forward to the project review," Collins said at the hearing. "I'm putting on notice today that I'm committed to everyone here -- we're going to bring everyone to the table, that's [the] vendor, that's VA, everybody in the middle, and figure out what this problem is, because it's time to fix it."
While Collins had a staunchly conservative voting record as a congressman from Georgia -- including opposing abortion and LGBTQ+ rights and supporting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election -- Senate Democrats largely supported Collins to become VA secretary.
But Democrats also quickly put Collins on notice that they will closely watch his first moves as secretary.
Immediately after the confirmation vote Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, sent Collins a letter urging him to take several quick actions, including exempting the entire VA workforce from a federal hiring freeze, reinstating the VA inspector general fired by Trump and rescinding the delayed resignation offer sent to VA employees.
"Your success as secretary, as well as your credibility, will be largely determined by the initial actions you take upon assuming your new office," Blumenthal wrote. "Today is your opportunity to make good on the assurances given during your confirmation hearing -- to stand up for veterans in strong opposition to these arbitrary and harmful directives and to put veterans first."
Related: VA Secretary Nominee Pledges to Modernize Hospital Infrastructure, Promote Community Care
