During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) questioned VA Secretary Doug Collins about leaked emails on mass firings and the halting of clinical trials.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And before the clock begins, I just ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the provisions of Public Law 118-42.
00:10These are sections that clearly indicate that it is current law that unless the Secretary of Veterans Affairs receives approvals from the Committees on Appropriations of Both Houses of Congress, that these transfers are not to take place.
00:23No objection.
00:24Thank you. Okay. So, Mr. Secretary, in answer to Mr. Franklin's question about the cancer research and clinical trials concerns and the accusations that clinical trials in particular and research have been cut, those were referenced in a very disturbing article about indiscriminate staff firings
00:51and planned program cuts having a direct and negative impact on cancer treatment at the VA.
00:57You may recall that I'm now a 17-year breast cancer survivor, so this issue is deeply personal to me.
01:04These are leaked emails from VA staff that show that more than 1,000 veterans would lose access to treatment for diseases ranging from metastatic head and neck cancers and kidney disease to traumatic brain injuries.
01:14These emails further revealed that enrollment in clinical trials is stopping, which we all know means veterans lose access to therapies.
01:22And I'm talking about enrollment stopping.
01:26I've been working hard on this committee along with Judge Carter, and we've successfully increased funding for cancer research and clinical trials.
01:35So, can you further clarify this?
01:40Have clinical trials enrollment stopped?
01:43Have there been any?
01:44I know you referenced reorganization, but in the process of looking at reorganizing, has enrollment in any clinical trial stopped, and has any research been halted?
01:57Okay, let's take the two questions, and again, you and I have talked about this as well.
02:03No research, no VA research trials have been canceled, so let's take research that way.
02:07The clinical trials, and you may have mentioned one, so I'm assuming you're talking about Pittsburgh because that was the one that seems to have come up.
02:14This was one that was a head and neck cancer, lung cancer, that officials warned, this was the allegation that warned that hiring freezes had still not started.
02:22Here's the interesting thing about that, hiring freeze had nothing to do with that because this was scheduled to start, was not started before the hiring freeze, had not been recruiting anybody, there was nobody in, so you can't stop something that hadn't started yet.
02:35This was a trial that had not started before.
02:37Just to interject, was enrollment in that clinical trial or any clinical trial halted?
02:44No, because you can't start, you can't halt something that wasn't started.
02:47Well, was it halted or not begun as planned?
02:49No, because this was already been planned.
02:51In fact, that particular trial that you're talking about right now, they're going to begin looking for participants in that trial this month.
02:59Okay, well, there were dozens of emails.
03:01This is not rumor or innuendo.
03:03This is dozens of emails from VA employees in specific multiple locations from Pennsylvania to Detroit to Colorado, indicating clearly that there were research projects halted and enrollment stopped.
03:20So, and I know you were asked these questions by two senators from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee over a week ago.
03:26So, have you been able to get further information in relation to those questions and mine?
03:31And that's what I, you know, I just answered, the sales, as far as, no.
03:34So, there's no clinical trial anywhere in the VA where enrollment has halted or research has stopped?
03:41There is clinical trials that go on.
03:42This is one of our problems that we had, and I said earlier.
03:45There are over 1,500 clinical trials going on right now with no centralized supervision.
03:50No, I know, and I heard your answer to Mr. Franklin.
03:52Has there been any clinical trial where enrollment has been halted anywhere in the VA or research that was being conducted or beginning to proceed that has been halted anywhere in the VA?
04:07And have you looked into that?
04:08I think for any, and I'm not, here's my question because you just made a very, and I'm not trying to avoid your question, but I just want to be honest.
04:14You made a very open-ended, could they have been slowed up or stopped for any reason?
04:18Well, that's the, there may be, and that I couldn't answer the question.
04:22I'll have to look at your specific, because you've now opened the aperture so wide.
04:25No, I'm opening, the aperture was, Mr. Secretary, reclaiming my time.
04:29The aperture was opened pretty wide by this article where there were dozens of emails from doctors and healthcare providers involved in this research and these clinical trials that have specifically said that they were halted.
04:44And so, I mean, I'm not just making this up.
04:47These were from VA employees.
04:50So it's an aperture that, so since the aperture is wide, as it should be, I'd like to specifically know the answer.
04:57Have you not looked into that concern in the week since the Senate VA committee?
05:02We have looked into it, and I think the specific question, especially that was the center of this article, again, was going back to the, especially as your concern as well, the head and neck cancer and lung cancer, was a program that had was talked about, was not even started.
05:14So I would like you to.
05:15You can't call it on a hiring freeze.
05:16Okay, so I'd like, I'd like you to get back to me then.
05:19Okay.
05:19Specifically, specifically about has there, have there since your tenure begun, begun any halting of cancer research at the VA that was planned and any enrollment in clinical trials that have ceased?
05:35For any reason?
05:36For any reason?
05:37Would this be previous last year as well?
05:40The gentlewoman's time has expired.
05:42I now give it to you.
05:43But I would like to just make sure that the secretary, Mr. Chairman, I would like the secretary to confirm that he will get me that information.
05:50The gentlewoman's time has been expired.
05:52So you're not going to allow, Judge Carter would certainly let me make sure that the secretary.
05:56I am not Judge Carter, madam.
05:57The gentlewoman's from Florida has expired.
06:00I now give the floor to the gentleman from Florida.
06:03That is not how this committee is run, Mr. Chairman.
06:05It is under me, ma'am.
06:06Well, you're not the chairman.
06:09Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
06:10Appreciate it.