Tammy Baldwin says the VA's assurances about the restructuring need transparent plans and clear metrics
Tammy BaldwinU.S. senator from Wisconsin, in a letter to Secretary Collins
Baldwin says the VA's assurance that field operations will not be affected by the restructuring must be backed by transparent plans and clear measures of success, so communities know access to care will not suffer.
Responding to
The reorganization is not a reduction in force, and staffing and operations at VA medical centers and clinics will not change as part of it.
“While the VA has stated that field operations will remain unaffected by this restructuring, those assurances must be supported by transparent plans and clear metrics for success. Local communities need to know that access to care will not be compromised through the pursuit of administrative efficiency.”
Official statement
Where this statement fits
VA consolidates its health care networks from 18 to five and caps staffing; Collins says it cuts bureaucracy, and critics say the caps strain veterans' care
On December 15, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a reorganization of the management structure of the Veterans Health Administration, which runs the VA's hospitals and clinics. The VA calls the effort the Restructure for Impact and Sustainability Effort, or RISE, and describes it as its largest transformation in more than 30 years. It shrinks the VA's regional health care networks, known as Veterans Integrated Service Networks or VISNs, from 18 to five, adds health service areas beneath them and gives VHA Central Office responsibility for policy, financial management and oversight. The VA said the changes would take 18 to 24 months. The VA also lifted its health care hiring freeze in January 2026 but gave each network a baseline number of positions that it can exceed only with approval from a central hiring committee, and it removed vacant positions from its rolls. VA officials told senators the caps correct overhiring; Gregory Goins, the VHA's acting chief operating officer, said 14 percent staff growth against 6 percent workload growth was unsustainable. Secretary Doug Collins says the reorganization is not a reduction in force and that staffing at medical centers and clinics will not change. Republican committee chairs Mike Bost and Jerry Moran back the plan's aims, though Bost has his own bill for eight networks, and Moran said he would not want a cap to be the determining factor if problems develop. Democrats on both veterans' committees, and Kenneth Kizer, who designed the network structure in the 1990s, say the plan lacks detail and comes on top of large staff losses. Sen. Maggie Hassan told Collins that doctors and nurses are not overhead. As of November 13, 2026, the VA lists five networks on its website, which GAO says changed on July 15, 2026, and its RISE page says no offices or positions will be eliminated through the restructure.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
Release of April 6, 2026 from Sen. Tammy Baldwin with the text of her letter to Secretary Doug Collins on the Veterans Health Administration restructuring and the elimination of unfilled positions, including her questions about Wisconsin facilities, costs and how the VA will measure success.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Baldwin wrote to Collins that veterans, health care providers and community groups in Wisconsin had told her they feared the restructuring could weaken access to timely, high-quality care.
After the quotation
She said the administration was eliminating positions that provide health care to veterans, many of them vacated in the past year, and asked the VA for its analysis of effects on wait times, a list of unfilled positions slated for elimination in Wisconsin, cost estimates and benchmarks for success.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is the VA's reorganization of the Veterans Health Administration, announced December 15, 2025, and the staffing caps that came with it. Baldwin questions the VA's description of the restructuring as leaving field operations unaffected and asks for evidence, without rejecting the restructuring outright in this passage. She challenges the VA's account of its effects.
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The Dispute Index. "Tammy Baldwin says the VA's assurances about the restructuring need transparent plans and clear metrics". First published: 2026-11-13. Last updated: 2026-11-13. https://disputeindex.com/events/8774-baldwin-says-the-va-s-assurance-that-field