By Joseph Wilkinson
New York Daily News The PACT Act online news
(New York Daily News) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ripped a Republican plan for the Department of Veterans Affairs under a possible second Donald Trump presidency.
The plan, dubbed Project 2025, calls for an extreme reorganization of the American government to solidify conservative rule. It also calls for cuts to the VA, which Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed Sunday at a news conference.
“Today, we are here to make it clear that no one is cheering, that vets want answers, and that any plans to slash VA benefits, degrade the bipartisan PACT Act or hurt our veterans under the guise of some clandestine project reform will not stand,” he said.
Schumer promised no bills involving cuts to the VA would see the Senate floor under his leadership.
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The PACT Act, passed in 2022, extended VA health care benefits to service members who were exposed to toxic substances during their time in the military. It was focused on troops exposed to burn pits abroad during the war on terror, and it significantly expanded VA funding and costs.
Project 2025 blames the PACT Act for “historic increases” in spending by the agency.
“This gobbledygook can be summed up in three words: slash veteran benefits,” Schumer claimed. “I fought hard for the PACT Act, which once and for all gave vets the benefits they earned for the service. Prior, had you gotten a major Agent Orange cancer, there was no coverage, burn pit cancer, no coverage. We righted that wrong, and this plan would undo it all.”
Though the PACT Act eventually passed the Senate with bipartisan support, it was held up due to back-and-forth negotiations in Congress.
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Project 2025 also promises to remove civil servants from important positions “on the first day and ensure political control of the VA” through political appointees — and calls for ending abortion and gender-affirming surgery procedures at VA facilities.
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“It remains what it is: a bunch of bad ideas that aim to hurt working people and vets who served this country,” Schumer said.
In criticizing Project 2025, Democrats have tended to focus on its more extreme proposals: handing the president almost unchecked power, gutting federal agencies and explicitly politicizing the Justice Department and the FBI.
Trump has publicly disavowed the plan, but it was constructed by many of his advisers and former officials from his presidential administration. The plan for the VA was drafted by Brooks Tucker, chief of staff at the agency for the last year of Trump’s presidency.
In addition to changes at the VA, Project 2025 also calls for cutting 1 million federal jobs, an estimated 30% of which are held by veterans.
“The bottom line here is that Project 2025 would erode hard-earned VA disability compensation benefits and undo the impact of the PACT Act and other historic expansions of veterans benefits simply because they believe caring for veterans is too expensive and not a cost of war,” Schumer said. “We should never balance the budget on the backs of veterans.
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