This story was updated on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 8:46 a.m.
Former Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins could be headed back to Washington to serve as head of the second-largest department in the federal government, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Collins will oversee a staff of nearly 371,000 tasked with providing health care, benefits and burial services for American veterans and their families.
Collins is a Baptist minister and businessman who also became a lawyer later in life. Born in Gainesville, he studied at North Georgia College, New Orleans Theological Seminary and John Marshall Law School. He joined the United States Air Force Reserve as a chaplain following the Sept. 11 attacks and previously served as a Navy chaplain. He currently holds the rank of colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
Collins served in the Georgia House from 2007 to 2012, departing for a successful Congressional campaign, and he represented northeast Georgia’s 9th Congressional District from 2013 to 2021.
In Congress, Collins gained a reputation as a solid Trump ally, defending then-president Donald Trump during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Russia improperly influenced the 2016 election and authoring a book on Trump’s first impeachment.
Collins was Trump’s favorite to replace the late GOP U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson when Isakson retired from the Senate, but Gov. Brian Kemp bucked Trump and chose businesswoman Kelly Loeffler instead.
Collins dropped out of Congress to mount a bid for Loeffler’s seat when she was up in the 2020 election, but he came in third place in a crowded jungle-style primary held to decide who would finish Isakson’s term. Loeffler would go on to be defeated by Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in a runoff.
In 2021, Collins announced that he would not be seeking election to any office in a letter to supporters.
“For those who may wonder, this is goodbye for now, but probably not forever,” he wrote.
Trump’s appointment may give Collins another round in the national spotlight.
“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need,” president-elect Donald Trump said in a statement naming Collins as his appointee.
Collins will need approval from the Senate before he can take the reins, but he thanked Trump in a statement and pledged to improve care for the approximately 16 million military veterans in the U.S., including about 700,000 in Georgia.
“We’ll fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned. Together, we’ll make the VA work for those who fought for us. Time to deliver for our veterans and give them the world class care they deserve.”
Complaints about the VA have been constant for years, said state Rep. Josh Bonner, a Fayetteville Republican and chair of the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee. Service members often report facing delays getting appointments and benefits and say the department is not responsive to complaints.
“It’s never been great, but I’d say it’s gotten worse over the last few years, as things have kind of winded down from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Bonner said. “And then with the PACT Act, that has increased the number of veterans that are eligible for benefits, And so what you have now is even more veterans that are eligible, that are straining the system that’s in place.”
Bonner said he thinks Collins’ experience as a servicemember and a member of Congress make him a good fit for the job.
“All those things combined give him a pretty unique perspective,” he said. “And I think, just again, knowing him personally, I think he’s a very smart guy, who knows how to get things done. And I think that there’s a lot of momentum in the veteran community to see him succeed.”
Bonner said Collins’ statement about streamlining and cutting regulations is just the right message.
“The VA is its own healthcare system, so it’s massive, so when I think of streamlining and cutting red tape, I look at things like allowing veterans instead of waiting six months for a VA doctor 100 miles away from where they live, allowing them to make an appointment with their own doctor.”
Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat who sits on the Senate’s Veterans Committee, said discontent with the VA’s operation is bipartisan, and he’s hopeful that Collins’ appointment will mean more attention for Georgia’s military communities and that the former Congressman will be able to turn the department around.
Much of that will be down to budgeting, which won’t be directly in Collins’ hands, but McLaurin said Collins has an opportunity to change the often adversarial relationship vets describe between themselves and claims managers.
“The VA should not operate like an insurance company, to put it bluntly,” McLaurin said.
“Far too often, veterans have the experience that they feel like they’re dealing with an insurance adjuster as opposed to somebody who is genuinely interested in making them whole for the service that they’ve provided to the country. That would be the general perspective I have, and I think that perspective is shared in a bipartisan fashion. There might be different policy views on how to address particular problems with the VA, but in general, I think we want to see an administration that is more oriented towards believing veterans and providing them the services that they need in a timely manner.”
One policy difference that may come up during the next four years goes back to what Collins said about streamlining. Some Democrats fear that could mean privatizing care and laying off workers. For McLaurin, that’s the exact wrong approach.
“When you cut funding for the VA, or you outsource critical functions of the VA to private industry, which is most of all concerned about its profit motive – I mean, that’s every business, its bottom line comes first – the concern is that you move the system even further away from the mindset I’m talking about, which is to trust veterans to approach them without a scarcity mindset and to make sure they get the care and the benefits they deserve,” he said.
McLaurin said he’s hopeful Collins will pick the approach that’s best for America’s vets.
“This is one of those cases where you don’t root against the opposing party when they come into power, right? I mean, particularly in the case of veterans, you’re rooting for Doug Collins to succeed and to do something with the VA that up till now has proved very difficult.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the type of primary that Collins was in for one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats in 2020. It was a jungle-style primary that Collins finished third in. The story has been updated to reflect that.
This story was provided by WABE content partner Georgia Recorder.
