# Doug Collins Republican Secretary of the [[Department of Veterans Affairs]] since February 4, 2025 (confirmed 77–23). A former Georgia congressman (GA-9, 2013–2021), [[Air Force]] Reserve chaplain, and prominent defender of Trump during the first impeachment, he oversees the VA amid DOGE-driven workforce cuts and expanded private "community care." ## The EHR restart Collins's most consequential procurement decision was to restart and accelerate the paused Cerner/Oracle electronic health record rollout on taking office in 2025 — four Michigan hospitals in April 2026, four in Ohio and Kentucky in June — with the VA press office claiming the administration had "more than doubled the number of VA medical centers" on the system between April and June. Weeks later, on August 18, 2026, the department signed a ~$17B modification lifting the [[VA Oracle EHR Modernization Contract]] ceiling from $10B to ~$27B and extending it to 2031; the justification document blamed "unanticipated complexities" and re-justified sole-sourcing to [[Oracle Health]]. When the [[House Veterans' Affairs Committee]] convened on September 2, Collins sent Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, who could not explain what drove the increase. Chairman [[Mike Bost]] (R) called the program "the biggest boondoggle I've seen." ## See Also - [[Department of Veterans Affairs]] · [[VA Oracle EHR Modernization Contract]] - [[Oracle Corporation]] · [[Larry Ellison]] · [[Second Trump Administration]]