V.A. Secretary vows to end ‘fog’ of bureaucracy in blunt Wyoming roundtable

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyoguard/albums/72177720331677074

Wyoming National Guard

By Joseph Coslett Jr.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – In a frank and sometimes emotional exchange with Wyoming veterans, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins promised a top-to-bottom overhaul of his agency Jan. 21, 2026, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, acknowledging a crippling “fog” of bureaucracy that has left veterans struggling against logistical nightmares and systemic failures.

The roundtable, hosted by U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, put the stark realities of serving veterans in a frontier state on full display. Collins listened as local leaders and veterans shared stories not of abstract policy, but of dangerous mountain drives for routine appointments, predatory “claim sharks” charging for free services, and a national system so inconsistent that, in his words, “Right now, if you say if I’ve been to one V.A., I’ve been to one V.A., that’s gonna stop.”

The secretary opened by diagnosing the problem in unsparing terms, arguing the V.A.’s leadership had become disconnected from its mission.

“I’m an old pastor,” Collins said, framing the issue. “If it’s a mist in the pulpit, it’s a fog in the congregation. And there is a huge fog in the congregation.”

To clear that fog, Collins outlined a plan to flatten the V.A. hierarchy, making local hospitals the “tip of the spear” and turning Washington leadership into a purely support role. He forcefully dismissed perceptions of a local hiring freeze, empowering the Sheridan V.A.’s leadership directly.

“If they need a doctor, they can hire a doctor,” Collins asserted. “If somebody in a hospital says they can’t, then I need to speak to them directly.”

That high-level promise was immediately tested by ground-level truths.

Kelly Ivanoff, chairman of the Wyoming Veterans Commission, drove the point home by describing the perilous journey his vice-chair faces to get from Worland to the Sheridan V.A. clinic over the Bighorn Mountains. The 7 a.m. appointment, he explained, requires her to either leave the night before or drive through the darkness, a trip he compared to navigating terrain in Afghanistan.

The state of veteran facilities proved to be another raw topic. Stefan Johansson, director of the Wyoming Department of Health, described the Buffalo Veterans Home as having “some of the steepest ramps in that building, you can imagine,” making a wheelchair descent a nerve-wracking ordeal. He noted that despite the urgent need, the facility’s $90 million rebuild project is ranked 69th on the national priority list.

The bureaucratic tangle was personified by a veteran named Chuck, who recounted being forced to repeat an entire audiology exam because the V.A. couldn’t access the records from a V.A.-authorized vendor he had seen just five months prior. “To me, that is a waste of time,” he stated plainly.

Collins called it a system-wide failure and said his long-term goal is to use automation to eliminate up to 85% of such redundant exams.

Throughout the meeting, veterans presented specific problems, and the Secretary offered direct responses:

• On the issue of “claim sharks” charging veterans thousands for help with paperwork, raised by Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander Michael Alverson, Collins said the ultimate solution is radical simplification. He announced a plan to shrink the complex, 20-page disability application to just three pages.

“No veteran in this country has to pay to get help for the V.A.,” the secretary stressed.

• When Lyle Wadda, Tribal Commissioner, Wyoming Veterans Commission, of the Wind River reservation noted that vital mobile vet vans now sit parked, the acting director of the Sheridan V.A. pledged to personally investigate the logistical breakdown.
• On the deeply emotional issue of veteran suicide, Collins made the statistic of 17 veteran suicides per day.  “I counted it up,” he said, his voice dropping. “One, two, three, four… five. That’s every day.” He challenged service organizations to forge personal connections, warning that for a struggling veteran, a simple “I’m okay” may be the last thing they ever say.

In addition to systemic changes, Collins announced a concrete policy directive he had recently signed to allow female veterans direct access to gynecological care without a primary care referral, ending a barrier he called frustrating and unnecessary.

The discussion repeatedly returned to the power of community action, a theme Barrasso actively highlighted. The senator guided the conversation to feature Wyomingites like “Coyote” Parks, a Patriot Guard Rider who honors veterans at funerals, and Larry Kloster, a Casper hospice volunteer who provides a final, formal service for veterans in their last days—powerful images of a community honoring its own, even as the fight to fix the system that serves them continues.