Lawmakers were told the North Battlefield VA Outpatient clinic in Chesapeake remains understaffed, months after it opened in April.
Retired Master Chief Petty Officer Susan Hippen told the panel of Democratic House lawmakers that she lives less than 10 minutes away from the clinic but still has to travel to the VA hospital in Hampton for much of her care.
“I go to see my doctor, who is now at the Chesapeake clinic. If he says, Susan, I want you to get a scan for this. Susan, you know, I want you to get that X-ray. I gotta go all the way up to Hampton. People are scared. They're concerned and they're pissed off, very honestly,” Hippen said.
Hippen described the clinic as a “ghost town.”
The clinic was designed to help the Department of Veterans Affairs accommodate the roughly 42,000 veterans who live on the south side of the Elizabeth River. The VA opened in April with 150 employees and released a timeline to reach full staff with 550 people by January, with additional services coming online in July, including dental and expanded mental health care.
"It now employs 185 people and is actively recruiting for 243 additional positions as part of its phased growth plan," said John Rogers, spokesman for the Hampton VA. "As of now, the clinic has 6,810 enrolled veterans and has completed 4,000 patient visits in the last six weeks. Over the next 20 days, the facility is scheduled to complete 9,000 additional appointments."
Sheila Elliot, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local covering the VA facilities in Hampton Roads, testified that the local VA remains behind schedule. Hiring has not recovered from an initial hiring freeze imposed by the Trump Administration and the staff cuts imposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“It's a great loss to our veterans. This disruption upended staff planning that our leadership had worked on for two years prior to the clinic scheduled opening,” Elliot said.
A member of the panel, Rep. Bobby Scott, said after leadership threatened to lay off 80,000 staffers nationwide, the VA continues to have a difficult time convincing people to accept job offers.
“They've made it more difficult for themselves by announcing a major reduction in force. Of course, you're going to have trouble hiring people.”
The Democratic Steering and Policy Committee also took testimony from Virginia Delegate Jackie Glass and Freddy Mejia, policy director at the Commonwealth Institute. Mejia talked about the impact of potential cuts to Medicaid, as part of what President Donald Trump has dubbed the “big beautiful bill” which passed the House and is being considered in the Senate.
The extra restrictions associated with new work requirements are likely to leave 9 million people without health insurance by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“I do not doubt that these new barriers to coverage will cause veterans who should be eligible for Medicaid coverage to be pushed out of the system and to end up uninsured,” Mejia said.
Lawmakers also heard about delays in Tricare payments impacting military families.
Roughly 6,000 veterans have been fired as part of the cuts in the federal workforce, said Rep. Mike Thompson, Democrat from California, who is a Vietnam veteran..
“The stakes are too high. We have to protect veterans, their benefits and the programs that they rely on every day, programs and services that they earned.”
