Veteran advocacy leader defends Trump's shake-ups at VA, calls for reform to support veterans
EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump's Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, has proposed a 15% workforce reduction with a goal of cutting 80,000 jobs at the VA.
Retired Lt. Col. Jim Whaley, CEO of Mission Roll Call, a veteran advocacy non-profit, said such VA reform is necessary to improve veterans' lives across the United States.
Whaley told Fox News Digital that veterans want to see less bureaucracy at the VA and more "community care" to cut wait times and increase services at local VA hospitals, but "if it was easy, somebody would have solved it."
"Every American and politician, from both sides of the aisle, can agree that we want to make sure we take care of our veterans," Whaley said. "We just got out of over 20 years of war, so there are a lot of veterans and their families that need help. We want to make sure that every dollar that the American taxpayer is paying to support the VA is spent wisely, and that veterans are getting the care that they need. And more importantly, that they're getting the care when they need it, where they need it and how they need it."
'Changes That Actually Help Our Veterans': Va Secretary Defends Proposed 15% Workforce Reduction
The VA serves only half of U.S. veterans. While Whaley said Collins is trying to reach the other 50% through TV and podcast appearances, he encouraged more transparency about the VA's services to reach the other half of veterans who still need care.
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"One hundred days into the second Trump administration, and VA is no longer content with poor results. Under President Trump's leadership, we have already stripped away many of the costly distractions that were coming between VA beneficiaries and the benefits they have earned. And we're looking to make even more historic reforms to better serve our veterans," Collins said.
Trump and Collins have faced controversy in the media and among Democrats for cutting VA jobs and for their efforts to overhaul the department. Whaley, whose organization conducts veteran polling, said more than half of veterans are worried about VA cuts.
'Down To Zero': Veteran Suicide Crisis Targeted In Va Bill By Bipartisan House Coalition
"When all you hear is about the cuts versus what the philosophy is behind why you're making those changes in an organization, there's going to be fear. Change is hard. It's important that the VA stays as transparent as possible and reports on what is being done and what improvements are being made," Whaley said.
However, Whatley, a veteran himself, said all veterans want to see an improved VA.
"They want to see services improve, they want to see wait times reduced. As time goes on and Veterans Affairs communicate more and more with veterans, they will know a little bit about what's going on, and they'll be a little less anxious about it. I think it's all about making sure that veterans are getting the news, making sure they understand why they're making these cuts."
Whaley encouraged Collins and the VA to include more veterans in the conversations surrounding the VA's reform by listening to families and caregivers to learn how to best invest in veteran care.
"Veteran affairs are very important to recruitment issues, and that, of course, affects national security. So they're not all separate, it all wraps together. When a veteran gets out of the service after a few years of serving their country, we have to make sure that the transition to the civilian world and finding a job and plugging into the community goes smoothly, because if we don't, then we have an issue," Whaley said.
According to the 2023 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, more than 17 veterans committed suicide per day in 2021.
"We need to get the number of suicides as close to zero as possible. That's the number one priority," Whaley said, adding that community care is also a top priority, so veterans don't have to drive long distances and wait a long time to get the services they need.
"We need to make sure that the Department of Defense and the VA are working together when veterans are transitioning out of the military to make sure they're plugged into the VA and that the transition goes well. Because the fact of the matter is, the majority of suicides among veterans are from veterans that have recently transitioned to the civilian world."Original article source: Veteran advocacy leader defends Trump's shake-ups at VA, calls for reform to support veterans
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34 minutes ago
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'What a waste:' US scientists decry Trump's 47% cuts to NASA science budget
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Since January, when President Donald Trump took office for the second time, the White House has been asking U.S. government organizations to implement some pretty radical changes. Things have been tense, to say the least. Thousands of federal workers have been laid off with little explanation, programs that improve diversity in the workplace have been eliminated, research grants have been cancelled in large sweeps, and international college students find themselves at risk of losing their legal status. One government organization that could be hit the hardest is NASA. The agency has faced a particularly extensive amount of pressure from the Trump administration: surveillance, goal restructuring, website purging and more. Other federal science organizations haven't been spared, either — places like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have been targeted as well. The ground of U.S. science seems to be quaking for political reasons rather than scientific ones, leaving scientists disheartened by their government and anxious about what's next. "I don't think it is an overstatement to say that morale among U.S.-based scientists is at an all-time low," Sarah Horst, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, told "People are afraid for their jobs, their students, the projects they've often spent decades working on, and they are afraid for the future of the United States." And things only got worse on May 30, when the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request for NASA came out. It proposes cutting the agency's science funding by 47%, and the agency's workforce by about one-third — from 17,391 to 11,853. This budget has to be officially passed by Congress to take effect, but if it indeed does, the effects could be brutal. "That would represent the smallest NASA workforce since mid-1960, before the first American had launched into space," Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration and advocacy organization, told "If this budget is made real, I am most concerned about people," John O'Meara, chief scientist at the Keck Observatory, told "Missions deliver data and are essential, but the data is meaningless without the people there to interpret it, test theories and share discoveries with the world." Perhaps the most striking aspect of the White House's 2026 NASA budget proposal is the sheer amount of missions it would cancel altogether: 41 projects, as the Planetary Society said in a statement denouncing the report. "This is the extinction-level event we were warning people about," Dreier said. Some specifics: The sharply reduced budget would cancel the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, which was meant to bring samples of the Red Planet's surface to Earth — samples that NASA's Perseverance rover has been dutifully collecting over the last few years, and which scientists have long stressed must be analyzed in a lab to reach their full potential. MSR has experienced its own share of complications since its genesis, to be fair, including a huge price tag and what some believe is an overcomplicated mechanism of sample retrieval. However, cancelling the project outright instead of coming up with a solution would waste much of Perseverance's work on the Red Planet. The OSIRIS-APEX mission (you may remember it by its previous moniker, OSIRIS-REx) would also be cut off. This mission successfully sent a spacecraft on a multi-billion-mile expedition to an asteroid named Bennu, then had it grab a few pieces of the asteroid before traveling all the way back to Earth and safely dropping the samples to the ground. This same probe is now on round two, headed to examine the infamous asteroid Apophis — but if the FY26 NASA budget is confirmed, it won't complete its trip. "I'm personally mostly concerned for in-flight missions that already have a significant investment in both taxpayer dollars and peoples' lives/careers (including my own)," Kevin McGill, an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the agency's lead center for robotic planetary exploration, told "Luckily, my work on [the Curiosity Mars rover] and Mars2020 [Perseverance] are mostly safe, but a lot of other stuff isn't." The budget also suggests ceasing operations for the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, which has been circling our solar system's gas giant since 2016 while regularly delivering rich information about the world and its moons. Juno is responsible for all those swirly blue images of Jupiter the astronomy community holds high; it took five years for this spacecraft to get to where it is, and many more for it to be built in the first place. "The operating missions cancellations alone represent over $12 billion of invested taxpayer value — and once they're gone, they're gone. It would take years and many millions more to replace them," Dreier said. NASA would also need to pull out of its collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the Rosalind Franklin rover — for the second time, no less — which is a robotic life-hunting explorer set to launch toward Mars in 2028. NASA had to pull out in 2012 because of budget cuts as well but re-entered the rover program after ESA cut ties with its other partner, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, once Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. "This makes the U.S. an untrustworthy partner and our allies hesitate the next time we ask them for help," Dreier said. Two operational Mars orbiters — Mars Odyssey and MAVEN — would be cancelled as well, as would the New Horizons spacecraft currently studying the outer reaches of the solar system and the DaVinci and VERITAS missions, which would explore Venus. The Lunar Gateway, which NASA envisioned as a sort of International Space Station around the moon, would also be cancelled. "What was surprising was the level of cuts within parts of each of the agencies. An example is astrophysics, where the cut was nearly 2/3 of the astrophysics budget," O'Meara said. According to the Planetary Society's analysis of the budget, that huge astrophysics reduction could mean eight spacecraft dedicated to studying extreme events in the universe (think, the Chandra X-ray Observatory) would be terminated. This analysis also suggests 10 missions constructed to study the region around Earth and the sun would be cancelled, as well as about a dozen Earth-specific missions that help scientists forecast natural disasters such as hurricanes and track global warming. The latter is especially concerning, given the speed with which Earth is heating up due to human activities that lead to greenhouse gas emissions — activities the Trump administration favors, such as burning coal for cheap power. Per the budget proposal, the White House also wants NASA to eliminate its "green aviation" spending, dedicated to making airplanes better for the environment, and instead work on "protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications." It is also worth considering that other Trump-mandated moves have heavily impacted climate initiatives as well: more than 800 NOAA workers were laid off, for example, and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which houses climate change records dating back to the 1800s, was closed down — leading members of NASA's largest union to speak out in solidarity with their coworkers. Hundreds of scientists working on the National Climate Assessment, a huge report that details the dangers of climate change for policymakers to lean on, were also dismissed. (That represented all of the authors of this report). "This budget request, and its implications, has been highly disruptive to the entire field," O'Meara said. "We are forced to focus on 'what-if' planning that changes in scope rapidly. That takes the time away from what we do best: doing science and sharing it with the world." Furthermore, the White House's FY26 NASA budget proposal centers around a shift toward human missions to the Red Planet; this was a rare area that saw a budget boost in the President's request. For example, one slide in the budget summary says NASA should invest "more than $1 billion in new technology investments to enable a crewed mission to Mars." Another says the agency should allocate "$200M for Commercial Mars Payload Services (CMPS) to start launching robotic precursor missions to the Martian surface, and $80M to start deploying communications relay capabilities for Mars." "It just bothers me that they are changing almost the entirety of NASA's mission to this pipe dream of a human mission to Mars in any reasonable time frame and cost," McGill said. reached out to NASA for comment on the possible impact of these budget cuts, and was directed to acting administrator Janet Petro's statement in the proposal's Technical Supplement. This statement is supportive of the budget request overall, mentioning items such as a renewed push for human spaceflight to the moon and Mars. "The President's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for NASA reflects the Trump-Vance Administration's commitment to strengthening America's leadership in space exploration while exercising fiscal responsibility. With this budget, we aim to shape a Golden Age of innovation and exploration," it reads. This shift toward Mars crewed missions is perhaps predictable, given Trump's affiliation with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (Former affiliation, maybe, given the heated feud currently unfolding on social media between the two.) Musk was a prominent backer of Trump's campaign and worked very closely with him over the past four months. For example, the SpaceX chief ran the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), which was responsible for the bulk of government funding cuts in the name of saving "wasted taxpayer money." Independently, Musk has earned a reputation as maybe the most outspoken advocate of settling Mars, even going so far as to say he wishes to "die on Mars." SpaceX, as well as its fans, are extremely focused on achieving that goal. "In isolation, a serious humans to Mars campaign should be exciting — Mars exploration is a worthy goal, and The Planetary Society has advocated for that for years," Dreier said. "But the cost here is too high." Another concern Dreier has is that the White House expects to achieve this major goal while simultaneously reducing NASA's workforce at an unprecedented rate. "This isn't just poor policy," he added. "It's fundamentally wasteful and inefficient, exactly what this administration is saying it does not want." And the layoffs could be even more far-reaching than anticipated. McGill says morale at JPL had already been very low after sweeping layoffs took place last year, but also that the energy was further damaged by the agency's recent return-to-office order. For context, nearly 5,500 JPL employees who have been working remotely since the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic were told they must return to in-person work. The deadlines for that return were Aug. 25 for general employees within California and Oct. 27 for teleworkers living outside the state. "Employees who do not return by their required date will be considered to have resigned," JPL officials said in a workforce-wide email that was obtained by "It's clear that it's a silent layoff of the over 1,000 remote employees who they don't want to pay severance to," a NASA employee at JPL not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency previously told McGill says the order "threatens to decimate the workforce and a lot of critical institutional knowledge." "I love JPL and its mission, but it's been a rough time as of late," he said. According to Dreier, there's good news and bad news concerning whether the budget proposal will go through. The good news is that, as he explains, there seems to be bipartisan dislike for the proposal. "We've heard directly from multiple congressional offices — Republican and Democrat — that this budget is 'dead on arrival,'" he said. Of note, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation released his legislative directives for Senate Republicans' budget reconciliation bill on Friday (June 6). The senator proposes dedicating $10 billion more to NASA's science programs — and, though most of it is indeed in line with the FY26 budget request's Mars endeavors, some of that funding would be used for other things, like NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket meant for moon exploration and Lunar Gateway. This united aversion to the budget proposal is unsurprising. The bipartisan U.S. Planetary Science Caucus, for instance, previously released a statement in response to early blueprints of the proposal that suggested the huge cuts we're seeing presented now. "We are extremely alarmed by reports of a preliminary White House budget that proposes cutting NASA Science funding by almost half and terminating dozens of programs already well underway, like the Mars Sample Return mission and the Roman Space Telescope," co-chairs Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) wrote. Such agreement across the aisle makes sense when we consider how long it takes for space missions to reach fruition. Collaboration isn't just key — it's unavoidable. "Spaceflight, and human spaceflight in particular, requires hand-off from one administration to another," Dreier said. "The timelines are just too long for any one presidential administration." The bad news, however, is the White House may have a workaround. Related Stories: — 'This is an attack on NASA.' Space agency's largest union speaks out as DOGE cuts shutter science institute located above 'Seinfeld' diner in NYC — Saving Gateway, SLS and Orion? Sen. Ted Cruz proposes $10 billion more for NASA's moon and Mars efforts — 'Their loss diminishes us all': Scientists emphasize how Trump's mass NOAA layoffs endanger the world "Even if Congress ultimately rejects this budget, the slow pace of legislation and gridlock we've seen in recent years make it unlikely that appropriations will be in place by October 1st of this year," Dreier said. "If there's another continuing resolution, the White House budget office will throttle spending to match the lowest of all possible budget scenarios: theirs. So, we face the possibility of these cuts going into effect by default. Given the breadth and depth of these cuts, that could be very hard to recover from." "This budget proposal threatens to tear down that carefully constructed coalition in favor of a narrow vision that lacks the political durability necessary for long-term success," he added. "What a waste."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Thousands throughout Michigan peacefully protest Trump policies, military parade
Thousands rallied Saturday, June 14, in Detroit's Clark Park, and more locations across the state, to protest Trump administration policies under the banner No Kings and to draw attention from a military parade in Washington, D.C., commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary. In 70 or so Michigan cities, from Midland to Muskegon and Milan to Marquette, thousands expressed their dissatisfaction. Each event was different, some were smaller gatherings, like in Bedford Township, and in larger ones, like in Detroit, speaker after speaker addressed massive crowds. Later, the protesters marched to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Protesters vented and talked about their worries that America is moving toward authoritarianism, and, given the last week's events, in which the president deployed the Marines and California's National Guard against the will of the state's governor, some even said they feared America could end up under martial law. "We are protesting Trump," said Elizabeth Williams, 35, of Detroit, who called President Donald Trump a fascist. "We are protesting his immigration policy because ICE is the new Gestapo. And one thing we are saying is that L.A. has shown the way." More: Skirmish at No Kings rally in Detroit Meanwhile, thousands more protesters met at the Michigan State Capitol with a series of speeches and street performances with a carnival theme, organizers said, "to highlight the absurdity of the military parade Trump has planned on his birthday." The event included a drive to collect food, first aid supplies and clothing. Susan and Steve Swaton, retired teachers from Marshall, said they went to Lansing to protest cuts to education and the Trump administration's efforts to change school curriculum. Steve Swaton, who taught U.S. history, said he was concerned that the changes were whitewashing history, emphasizing his view that students learn the "good, the bad and the ugly" of the past, in part, so they don't repeat mistakes. In Ferndale, hundreds more protesters lined both sides of Woodward Avenue holding signs that read, "Live, Laugh, Lock Him Up," and "If there's money for a parade, there's money for Medicaid." They tried to keep the mood festive, blowing bubbles and wearing costumes from the TV show "The Handmaid's Tale," in which a totalitarian society is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state. Activists held American flags upside down, a sign of distress, along the route, and cars driving through created a cacophony of honks. To make sure it didn't get out of hand, police cars were parked on the median. In Three Rivers, more than 350 gathered. In Gaylord, another 300 showed up at the Gateway Trailhead and fanned out onto Main Street downtown. They hoisted signs, many directed at the president, that expressed dissatisfaction. About 200 showed up in Monroe, where a 78-year-old man, James Goodridge, held up a copy of the Constitution near Monroe's Custer Statue, a monument to a Civil War general. He said: "Everything that's going on is against the Constitution." Protesters even gathered from some of the more remote parts of the state, the Upper Peninsula, converging in downtown Sault Ste. Marie to participate in the No Kings protest. Early on in the day, protest organizers and Michigan's political leaders called for peaceful protests. Attorney General Dana Nessel and the head of the Michigan Republican Party, Jim Runestad, a state senator from White Lake, urged groups to avoid violence. For the most part, they did. In Detroit, a protester got hit in the face by a biker and had to seek medical treatment. In Palm Beach, Florida, marchers got as close to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate as police would allow, USA TODAY reported. In Philadelphia, where the Continental Army was formed, a rally kicked off. In Atlanta, protesters shouted down a group of Proud Boys. And in Minnesota, officials urged protesters to quit their plans to rally after a Democratic state representative and her husband were killed, and another state lawmaker and his wife were shot. No Kings flyers, police there said, were in the vehicle of the suspect. But in Bedford Township, near Monroe, about 120 people gathered at the Government Center to take a stand for democracy, organizers said. The crowd — which held signs and chanted "Love not hate makes America great" — were united in one thing: decrying the president. One protester, Grace Rabbitt, said she was pleased with the turnout, calling the community "a very conservative area," and another, Justin McCullough, emphasized that the crowd there was made up of Democrats and Republicans. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@ Contributing: Nour Rahal, Natalie Davies and Sally Tato Snell, Free Press; Connor Veenstra and the Monroe News; Paul Welitzkin, the Petoskey News-Review; Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal; Dan Cherry, Sturgis Journal; Brendan Wiesner, Sault Ste. Marie News. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thousands in Michigan protest Trump policies, military parade
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump says it's ‘about time' US celebrates victories at military parade
President Trump on Saturday touted the might of the U.S. Army at the end of a two-hour parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the branch, framing it as a celebration of the country's military successes. 'Every other country celebrates their victories. It's about time America did, too,' Trump said in prepared remarks. 'That's what we're doing tonight.' Saturday's event came amid turmoil at home and on the world stage, but there was no mention from Trump of outside events. He spoke for about eight minutes, focusing on the Army's origins and several specific instances of bravery from soldiers in wars throughout American history. 'Watching this magnificent display, our souls are filled with gratitude for every generation of warriors who have worn the uniform back to the very beginning,' Trump said. Trump watched the parade from a viewing stand on Constitution Avenue. Other officials sitting with the president included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and first lady Melania Trump. At the conclusion of his remarks, Trump and the first lady were presented with a folded American flag from a service member. Vance, who served in the Marines, also delivered brief introductory remarks before Trump, nodding to the MAGA movement's anti-interventionist bent. 'To our soldiers, we're so proud of you. And let me tell you, the way that we honor and respect you, number one, we never ask you to go to war unless you absolutely have to,' Vance said. 'And number two, when we do ask you to go to war, we give you the weapons and the support needed to kick the hell out of the enemy and come back home safely,' he added. The president looked on as various military vehicles rolled down the street, including Sherman tanks and Howitzers. The U.S. Army Golden Knights parachuted onto the Ellipse near the parade route, landing near Trump's riser. Various groups of soldiers marched along the street, with Trump standing to salute at multiple points. The parade had been clouded by forecasts of stormy weather on Saturday evening. And while a few raindrops fell, severe storms held off and allowed the event to proceed mostly as planned with thousands of onlookers gathered along the parade route. The event was ostensibly to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary, but it in recent months became intertwined with Trump himself, especially given it fell on his 79th birthday. Critics questioned the sizable price tag and likened the display to similar events in authoritarian nations like Russia and North Korea. Anti-Trump 'No Kings' demonstrations took place across the country, with thousands of protesters showing up in major cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. Hours before the parade began, the nation was rocked by political violence after former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband were killed in what Gov. Tim Walz (D) called a 'politically motivated' attack. And tensions were rising in the Middle East after Israel and Iran in recent days traded missile strikes. Trump did not mention the conflict abroad, the violence in Minnesota or the protests during his remarks on Saturday evening. Earlier in the day he said he was briefed on the shooting in Minnesota and said such 'horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America.'
