Kentucky Rep. McGarvey hosts annual African American veterans breakfast in Louisville's Russell neighborhood
U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey said his co-sponsoring of the the Protect Veteran Jobs Act is one of the ways he is fighting back against President Donald Trump's current agenda.
His bill follows the layoffs of thousands of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employees, and plans for additional cuts, McGarvey told a gathering for African American veterans in Louisville's Russell neighborhood Friday morning.
McGarvey, who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and spoke with retired servicemembers at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, says the legislation following firing at the VA in recent weeks and to cut more than 70,000 more.
"We're not going to sit by, we're going to stand up," McGarvey said. "No president has the power to do this. If Donald Trump wants to come in and undo what we're doing in the VA, come to Congress and ask us to do it. That's where we have the fight."
McGarvey says he's focused on efficiency of the VA, and is unsure how staffing cuts won't have an impact on other agency services. Bipartisan concern is high, he said, especially following a large volume of veterans entering the system under the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act.
"I don't see how you can rip 80,000 employees out of the VA without even telling us who they are, and not have that impact on human services," McGarvey told to The Courier Journal. "We got to take care of these people and ripping that many people out of the system, there's no way we see that's going to help our veterans."
He continued, saying some veterans already face difficulties in accessing services and it's his job to make the process easier and more effective.
"On the Veterans Committee in Washington, we come together and take our mission extremely seriously to protect our veterans, to get our veterans the services they need," he said. "That is taking away people whose job is to help veterans get the services they've earned and we already know that veterans are having trouble accessing those services. We should be making it easier, not harder, for veterans to get what they've earned."
McGarvey also challenged current DEI cuts, saying without such initiatives — which allow military members to learn about each other and how to fight with one another — the Department of Defense will be weakened.
"This is how we protect ourselves, how we keep each other free, and it's not right to be getting rid of this initiative that allows us to have a premier fighting force in the world," he said.
He said the Veterans' Affairs Committee wants a more effective system for services and will work with anybody, including President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, to make it a reality.
"We will work with anybody to make sure that our country's promise to our veterans is honored, and I hope that no matter who's in charge in the House or the Senate or the White House, that they will agree with that basic promise," he said.