“NOT LEADERSHIP”: Virginia Beach Vet Blasts Kiggans for Gutting Veterans’ Health Care

The retired Army officer calls Kiggans out for touting herself as a champion for Virginia’s veterans – only to “rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s cuts to the VA” when it truly mattered.

She points out that the Hampton VA system is already facing a “severe shortage” of doctors and nurses – with one local clinic in North Battlefield being 40% understaffed – thanks to the extreme GOP agenda Kiggans supported. 

“This is not leadership,” she writes. “Veterans won’t get proper health care.”

Read the letter for yourself: 

Virginian-Pilot: Letter: Kiggans not ‘leading’ on veterans health care issues

• A recent guest column credited U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans with supporting veterans’ health care — credit she doesn’t deserve.
• Yes, she helped pass the Sen. Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act of 2024. She “helped” by joining 199 Democrats and 189 other Republicans in voting for this no-brainer bill. It passed the House with 97% approval.
• This is not leadership.
• Veterans won’t get proper health care… without robust clinical staffing. And that prognosis is not good. The North Battlefield VA Clinic that opened last April is still about 40% understaffed. (The VA Secretary promised 100% staffing within one year.)
• According to a 2024 inspector general’s report there’s a “severe shortage” of doctors and nurses across 35 clinical specialties in the Hampton VA system. All of which makes Kiggans’ effort to secure $80 million for another South Hampton Roads clinic curious. Why spend money on a new clinic when we can’t afford to staff the one we have?
• I wish Kiggans wouldn’t rubber stamp President Donald Trump’s cuts to the VA. Last year the president oversaw a record loss of 40,000 employees, the vast majority of whom were doctors, nurses, mental health clinicians and other frontline staff.
• The guest writer said he’s proud Kiggans represents him in Congress — me, not so much.

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