Illinois Congressman Mike Bost — who was recently elected for a second two-year term as chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs — said he wants to focus on modernizing the department and improving veterans’ health.
Bost, a Marine veteran who comes from a long line of military members, said he’d like to cut back on the hoops veterans need to jump through to access their benefits.
“We've got to modernize the VA to make sure that the VA isn't created just for the VA,” said Bost, R-Murphysboro. “It's created for the veterans.”
Bost’s 12th District, which covers the southern third of the state, is home to more than 52,000 veterans, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's nearly 9% of the district’s population 18 and older — the highest percentage of any Illinois district.
Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County is the biggest employer in the district.
Given the district’s makeup, Bost’s chairmanship of the committee had been a fundamental campaign pitch during a heated GOP primary this spring.
He said much of his first term as committee chairman had been centered around holding the Democratic administration running the Department of Veterans Affairs accountable. When Bost is sworn into another term it’ll be under President-elect Donald Trump.
“The advantage we're going to have with the administration is, if we see a problem, we're going to fix it,” Bost said. “We're not going to make excuses for it.”
Over the past two years, Bost’s committee had been critical of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough for allegedly ignoring claims of sexual harassment within the department and mistaken bonuses paid to senior staff.
Bost said Doug Collins, Trump’s pick to be secretary, is a good friend, and he’s hoping Collins can be confirmed by the Senate. Collins served four terms in Congress, representing a Georgia district from 2013 and 2021. He served in Iraq as an Air Force Reserve chaplain.
The House passed the Elizabeth Dole Act last month with bipartisan support. The legislation is designed to improve the delivery of health care, benefits and services offered by the VA.
Bost said Wednesday he believes the Senate will take up the bill before the end of the year.
The PACT Act, the nearly $800 billion legislation passed in 2022 that expands services provided to veterans exposed to toxic substances, has left the VA swamped with new requests.
While Bost said he’s supportive of the bill, he thinks it passed with some flaws. He’s heard stories of veterans dying from cancer waiting for treatment from the VA because they couldn’t get their eligibility for the program evaluated in time.
“There's our idea of what we think we wrote,” Bost said. “There's what we actually wrote, and then there's what the bureaucrats actually do.”
Bost will also continue to serve on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and he’s applying for a waiver to remain on the House Committee on Agriculture. House rules generally limit members to two committees, but he wants to keep his third assignment.
“I’m more likely to be able to keep that waiver based on the fact that there is a very close majority,” he said.
