The long day and night of Presidential inaugural events on January 20 will be followed the morning after by a Senate confirmation hearing to consider the nomination of the Honorable Douglas A. Collins to become the 12th Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The hearing, originally scheduled for January 14, will occur next Tuesday at 10am.

Committee Chairman Jerry Moran said in statement last Monday that Collins had submitted all of his paperwork in a “timely manner and has been transparent and forthcoming with the committee” but that the FBI had not yet completed its background check on him.

“In accordance with long-standing practice, the committee should have an opportunity to review Congressman Collins’ FBI file before the confirmation hearing,” Moran said in the statement. “I expect the FBI to complete its review quickly so that the committee can move forward with its role of evaluating the President’s nominee.”

The nomination of Collins was announced on November 14 by President-Elect Donald J. Trump. Collins served in Congress from 2013 to 2021 representing Georgia’s ninth congressional district, voting consistently in favor of major veterans’ bills on the House Floor. As reported in last week’s BVA Happenings, BVA supports the Collins nomination and looks forward to working with him in the months and years ahead. 

Collins served two years as a Navy Chaplain before joining the Air Force as a Chaplain after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Media reports following his nomination revealed a deployment to Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2008 with the 94th Airlift Wing, based in Dobbins, Georgia, where he served as an individual mobile augmentee to the Command Chaplain. He has most recently served as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.