VA Secretary Doug Collins addresses American Legion convention, calling for veterans to join the fight to prevent suicide, providing updates to claims backlog and hitting on other high-profile issues.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins delivered an impassioned speech to The American Legion National Convention Aug. 27 in Tampa, rallying attendees to “Be the One” for their military brothers and sisters.
“As veterans we are a small population in this country, and if we don't stand for up for each other, nobody's going to do it for us,” he said, highlighting The American Legion’s primary mission to prevent suicide among veterans and servicemembers. “I'm firmly convinced that one is too many. I am firmly convinced that if we as a society and we as a government, do not care, then the rest of the world will not give a damn about us. Everywhere you go, you've got to take the accountability for each other because if we don't, then we'll continue to lose them.”
Collins, who is also a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, referenced the need for veterans to be there for their buddies. His speech came roughly two months before VA’s National Buddy Check Week, which was formed after the Legion created its Buddy Check program in 2019.
He asked the crowd to do one thing to emphasize the need for Buddy Checks and helping others through suicide prevention programs like Be the One.
“We have to take care of veterans and quit worrying about the bureaucracy,” he said. “I challenge each of you when you get up in the morning or before you go to bed in the evening, count to 17 and then say, ‘I will Be the One.’”
During his speech, Collins hit on a number of other issues:
• Claims backlog: As of Aug. 23, the VA claims backlog was just under 150,000, a decline from around 260,000 in January 2025. “We put an intense focus on it. We put overtime on it. We are making a difference because we've done one thing and one thing different. The VA no longer works for itself. The VA works for the veteran of the United States of America.”
• Community care: Collins said VA’s priority is to get veterans the care they needed, whether that takes place at a VA medical center or another health-care facility. “We are going to use community care to make sure the veterans of this country get the help that they need. We're going to fully implement the Mission Act. We're going to actually put it into work because there's no fiefdom building at the VA. You will get the care you need without the bureaucracy.”
• Serving younger veterans: VA has expanded its hours to accommodate those who work during the day. “We have young families who are getting out and transitioning out. They have jobs and they can't get to the VA between the normal working hours. So we've added over a million extra extended hours, including weekends, across the VA system to take care of people so that no veteran who wants to get to the VA will be left out.”
• Homelessness: “We're doing everything we can including implementing the president's executive order in West LA to make places for veterans to have a place to go and to have a roof over their head to have the wraparound services that we can give them. We are not going to stop until we have everyone that we possibly can under roof.”
• Changes at VA: “We have changed from an organizational focus on how many employees we have and how many our FTE accounts for. We're changing the metric. The metric is no longer how big we are. The metric is how well are we taking care of veterans and that is our only measure of success anymore.”
- Convention