A few hundred people rallied outside a veterans hospital in Ann Arbor this weekend to protest federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
President Donald Trump has announced plans to lay off staff, tried to void some federal union contracts, and is calling telehealth workers back into offices that may not have space for them.
State Representative Joe Tate (D-Detroit), a marine corps veteran, said he attended Saturday’s protest as someone who has relied on the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System himself. Tate said it makes him “sick” to see resources scaled back, warning that could bring dire consequences.
“You have these effects where you're going to put people in the ground, veterans in the ground, if some of these veterans don't get the services they need,” Tate said.
Tate and others at the protest frequently brought up threats to funding for the 2022 PACT Act, which aims to help veterans exposed to toxic chemicals via risks like burn pits or Agent Orange, as a top concern.
Earlier this month, Trump signed a spending bill that cuts money for the Act as part of a plan to avoid a government shutdown that some Senate Democrats also eventually backed.
Army veteran Justin Coates attended Saturday’s rally carrying an American flag and a megaphone. He said he slept next to a burn pit during his first tour of duty.
“We used to throw like lithium batteries into it and trash and human waste and stuff like that. I slept next to it night, and we used to joke about how we were all going to die of cancer in a few years. So, when the PACT Act was passed, that was great. We were all excited about that. I was able to get on the registry. I told all my friends about it, all the guys in my squad,” Coates said.
He worries what he and his fellow veterans went through will be forgotten. He said he’s lost more friends to suicide than combat.
“Hearing about the cuts to the veteran crisis line, hearing about veteran crisis-line operators having to operate from their cars or in open air cubicles or what have you, just seeing the absolute lack of care for veterans under the guise of increasing efficiency, it's frankly insulting to everyone's intelligence,” Coates said.
Leadership at the VA, however, has vehemently denied the changes made will translate to cuts to veterans services. In a video response to concerns posted on February 13, VA Secretary Doug Collins dismissed stories about veterans benefits being cut as “hypotheticals” being circulated in the media.
“Reality is, veterans benefits aren’t getting cut,” Collins said. “In fact, we’re actually giving and improving services.”
Collins said the department is running more efficiently and clearing cases sooner.
Since posting that video, Collins has defended reported plans to let go 80,000 staff from the VA. That’s as the department works with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.
A handful of union leaders and elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI 12) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI 6) criticized the Trump Administrations’ decisions at Saturday’s rally.
Dingell said she fears veterans are getting caught up in a “meat cleaver” being taken to several departments. She said she worried about losing progress, noting both Democratic and Republican administrations have struggled to take care of soldiers after they serve.
“We have to honor our commitment and keep working to go forward. And when you see this many people understanding that we've got a moral responsibility (to those) who fought to keep us free, that's what they're out here for, fighting for those veterans,” Dingell said.
Michigan has around 479,000 veterans, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
