Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins swung through San Antonio on Wednesday, touring the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital, talking up the potential of psychedelics for PTSD treatment and warning that Democrats want to cut benefits for veterans.
Collins, a former Georgia congressman, took over the role shortly after President Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025.
He’s stayed out of the spotlight compared to other cabinet members, while seeking to modernize his agency in ways some wouldn’t have expected.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, what do you want me to do at the VA? What’s your goal?'” Collins recalled Wednesday morning at the VFW in Universal City. “He just looked at me, he sort of laughed. He said, ‘Doug, you’re out of central casting, just go take care of veterans.'”
The federal government is getting closer to finalizing plans for a new 1.6 million-square-foot Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in the South Texas Medical Center, which Collins spoke briefly about.
“It’s in the budget this year, 30 million for land acquisition and moving forward with plans to build a new facility down here,” Collins said. “We see the issues with parking, we see the issues that are happening, but it’s also part of a growing population of veterans out here, which we’re really proud of. We’re trying to move this facility up to get it done as quickly as we possibly can.”
He also talked up efforts to expand mental health care for veterans, including efforts to boost research into psychedelics, and get more veterans using their benefits.
“We have taken on ideas like redoing Community Care, redoing how people get into it,” he said. “We’ve talked about a lot of things [like] how we reorganize our hospitals, putting them first, going into psychedelic treatment, going into alternative treatments, doing the things that need to be [done] for the veterans.”
He also stumped for Trump-endorsed congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz at the Universal City event, warning that the GOP is headed into a tough 2026 midterm, and leaders in D.C. need De La Cruz to help them stop Democrats from cutting veterans’ health benefits.
“There is a discussion going on among the other side, the Democrats, who basically are trying to say things like ‘Community care growth is happening a little too fast,'” Collins said. “… I’ll just tell you what the translation of that is: ‘We want to cut veterans benefits.’ I need Carlos up there to say, ‘no.'”
Collins used his speeches at Audie Murphy and the VFW to blame the media for casting doubt on the amount of benefits veterans should receive.
But despite numerous veterans’ efforts in the works here in San Antonio — a new VA hospital, a potential relocation of the Defense Health Agency, and a new business incubator for veterans — Collins darted out of events without ever speaking directly to the press.
Democrats have also been making a play for veteran voters ahead of the 2026 midterm election, trying to capitalize on an unpopular war with Iran and the Trump Administration’s reductions to the VA’s workforce.
The administration cut nearly 28,000 VA employees between January and December of 2025 — including 2,200 in Texas alone — resulting in staff reductions at veterans’ health clinics.
In an interview after the campaign event in Universal City, De La Cruz said he also didn’t get much time for questions with the secretary.
He said Collins used their closed-door roundtable with local veterans this morning to share updates about changes he’s made at the agency, and stressed the uphill nature of turning around problems inherited from the previous administration.
“We didn’t get a lot of one-on-one time, but I’m just so grateful that he came down here for our veterans,” De La Cruz said.
