Garcia: What’s at Stake in November for America’s Bravest

When I flew F/A-18s in combat over Iraq, I learned that the mission only works when everyone behind you does their job. I trusted maintainers, planners, and wingmen with my life. Nobody asked about their politics. They delivered.

Veterans deserve that same standard from the department that serves them once the uniform comes off. For too long, they didn't get it. President Trump has made changing that a priority, and this November, that progress is on the ballot.

Start with Secretary Doug Collins. When the president chose him to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, the swamp monsters in D.C. doubted he could implement real change. Collins has proved them wrong. An Air Force Reserve chaplain who deployed to Iraq in 2008, he knows what a broken system does to a family at the kitchen table. He doesn't treat veterans like line items. He treats them like people who earned something.

The results show it. The VA reported earlier this year that its disability claims backlog fell below 100,000 for the first time since 2020, a 63 percent reduction since January 2025. Collins says claims-processing productivity has never been higher. Behind every claim is a veteran who gets an answer and a hard-earned check sooner.

Accountability is a big reason why. This administration put in place measures that allow the VA to remove employees who fail the veterans they serve, and thousands of failing or underperforming employees have been terminated. In the cockpit, if you can't do the job, you don't fly. The many dedicated VA employees who show up every day deserve colleagues who pull their weight.

This administration campaigned on getting homeless veterans off the streets, and they haven't taken their eye off that ball once, with Secretary Collins securing housing for the largest number of homeless veterans in seven years. President Trump has allocated billions of dollars to get homeless veterans into permanent housing, including in my home state of California. He also signed into law VA loan flexibility to keep veterans in their homes.

And anyone who’s left active duty knows how frustrating it is to dig through paperwork just to prove your own service. President Trump directed the Department of War and VA to streamline how they share information and digitize military medical records, helping service members get the care and benefits they need when they leave the military.

Through all of it, Secretary Collins has been a champion of strengthening the MISSION Act, creating an avenue for veterans to get the care they need at a VA facility or in their own communities, whichever serves them better.

But there is something that keeps me up at night. All of this progress can be snatched away with one election. The respect and reverence that our veterans are treated with are determined by who holds the power in the House. The next Congress will not only have the power of the purse, meaning they can fund and defund the VA however they see fit, but they can also put VA leadership in their crosshairs and stop all progress at the federal level.

When I served in Congress, I watched government programs and agency funding appear and disappear at the whim of a newly-elected Committee Chairman. If the House flips, so does the agenda. Funding becomes a weapon. The livelihood and dignity of veterans become an opportunity for a social media clip. The veteran waiting on cancer treatment or a new wheelchair goes from being a hero who served to points on the political scoreboard.

In the military, readiness doesn't happen by accident. You earn it through discipline and preparation, and you protect it. The same is true of the progress we've made for those who served.

So don't let this progress be halted on behalf of your battle buddies and the veterans who served before us. Show up to the polls and cast your ballot. Bring everyone you love, anyone who has served, and anyone who loves our country. There's early voting all over the Nation, so make your plan now.

We kept our promise to the country. Now we finally have leadership that’s keeping its promise to us. Let’s do everything we can to carry that progress through to the next generation of veterans.

Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.

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