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Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at the Committee’s business meeting to vote on a resolution to subpoena documents related to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Implementation of Executive Order (EO) 14019 and its Related Interagency Agreement with the Michigan Department of State.

I now call up the resolution to issue a subpoena to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the production of documents and communications related to VA’s implementation of Executive Order 14019 – Promoting Access to Voting.

The clerk shall report.

The resolution was circulated in advance, pursuant to Committee rules.

Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with.

The resolution is open to amendment at any point.

I now recognize myself to explain the resolution.

When I became Chairman of this Committee, I did not expect we would be meeting about elections and voter registration.

However, the Biden-Harris Administration made this our business when they issued the executive order and told V.A. to get involved in voter registration activities.

V.A. also made it our business today by ignoring the majority of my questions over the last several months.

This executive order has drastically changed the role of federal agencies in the electoral process.

Agencies have been directed to partner with “approved non-partisan organizations” to provide voter registration services at agency facilities.

You may wonder, what is an “approved third-party organization”?

Well, the Biden-Harris Administration defines what it means,

selects what organizations fit that definition,

and won’t disclose who these “approved non-partisan organizations” are.

This is unacceptable.

Although it is clear the Biden-Harris Administration thinks otherwise,

Congress has a very good reason to want to know who these groups are.

Through this executive order, the V.A., Department of Justice, Peace Corps, and every other federal agency, has been told to use their resources to partner with states as voter registration agencies.

For V.A.’s entire existence, it has never operated as a voter registration agency, until this executive order.

In fact, in 2008 California asked V.A. to become a voter registration agency.

Then V.A. Secretary James Peake declined California’s request because becoming a voter registration agency would:

quote – diminish the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission of providing medical care and benefits to veterans – end quote.

Fast forward to 2021, and the Biden-Harris Administration took it upon themselves to direct every federal agency to agree to become a voter registration agency if asked by a state,

regardless of whether it “diminishes the agency’s ability to fulfil its mission” – as former Secretary Peake put it.

If this was not concerning enough, the Biden-Harris Administration,

which planned and executed all aspects of the executive order,

refuses to share the strategic plans that V.A., and every other agency, submitted to the Biden-Harris administration.

Folks, that is not how the Constitution says our system of checks and balances is supposed to work.

I have sent V.A. three letters asking straightforward questions about this executive order and for nearly three months V.A. has ignored most of them.

Although V.A. refuses to explain themselves and won’t answer my requests,

heavily redacted FOIA documents reveal that before this E.O. was published, a career S.E.S. employee at V.A. questioned whether it was in veterans’ best interest for V.A. to be a voter registration agency.

Quote – We have a request from the 10th floor for us to take a look at Voter Registration and the impact operations in the Medical Center – end quote.

The “10th Floor” refers to the office of the Secretary.

The email concludes with the following:

Quote - wanted to check-in and confirm that V.H.A.’s thoughts on this have not changed. In other words, V.A. does not want to be a voter registration agency as it would divert personnel and resources from our mission of providing care to veterans – end quote.

I want to thank the V.A. employee who did the right thing and spoke up, sir or ma’am, you took the words right out of my mouth.

The responses to this email are redacted and V.A. has repeatedly refused to fully explain themselves.

However, the evidence shows staff has had the same concerns about V.A. being a voter registration agency as former Secretary Peake did,

but this time they were overruled by executive order and politicals on the “10th Floor”.

Because V.A. is now a voter registration agency,

but only in one state - Michigan.

I question why Michigan is V.A.’s focus despite having the 4th highest percentage of registered voters as a share of the voter population in the 2022 election.

Hardly a state that is lagging in its voter registration numbers.

Michigan is of course a crucial swing state in the 2024 election.

But V.A. isn’t doing voter registration in all of Michigan.

V.A. is only registering voters in Saginaw and Detroit at facilities that cater to veterans living in the swing counties that have historically determined whether Michigan will go red or blue on November 5th.

Let me put a finer point on it.

If you look at a map, V.A. is not focused on registering veterans to vote in General Bergman’s district in northern Michigan, or the west side of the state outside Grand Rapids.

Why does the Biden-Harris administration think these veterans don’t deserve access to the same voter registration resources as veterans living in southeast Michigan?

Michigan also happens to be the only state the Small Business Administration is partnering with as well.

It doesn’t take a political scientist to understand why I would have questions about this arrangement.

I welcome a reasoned and fact-based explanation for why V.A. is implementing the executive order in this manner.

That is why I asked V.A. three times for the results of the 2022 survey that collected data from veterans to help V.A. decide how to implement this executive order.

V.A. told veterans who filled out the survey that they would use the data to, quote - inform Congressional legislation and budgets – end quote.

After repeatedly asking for the survey results,

V.A.’s strategic plan,

an explanation for why V.A. picked Michigan,

and other documents related to the executive order,

V.A. has refused to fulfill these requests,

or offer an explanation for why they can’t or won’t provide the Committee with this information.

As a result, V.A.’s – and in large part the White House’s actions – are reasonably explained as politically motivated.

Registering eligible voters– including veterans – and participation in the electoral process is a good thing.

This is about politicians directing federal resources for their own benefit, in one specific part of the county, at the expense of veterans.

For anyone out there watching who has ever waited too long for V.A. healthcare,

or wondered why it is such a frustrating process to get your benefits,

understand that there are people in this town who view V.A. as a political tool and it appears to me that your care and benefits is not their first concern.