Doug Collins, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Veterans Affairs, pledged to preserve the VA’s health care system but also improve medical services for veterans through community care and other programs.

Collins, an Air Force Reserve chaplain and former Republican congressman from Georgia, told members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday that “there will always be a VA health care system for the veteran,” with community care providing specialty care and treatment for veterans who don’t have ready access to a VA facility.

At the same time, Collins added, the department needs to modernize the system for veterans who “deserve every access to finding care where they can.”

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“We’re going to fight for a strong VA,” Collins said during his confirmation hearing. “I believe you can have a strong VA as it currently exists and have a community care aspect.”

Questions have loomed over the size of the VA’s community care program since it was expanded under the Mission Act of 2018. Currently, 42% of medical care provided by the VA to veterans is done by the private sector, raising concerns that the cost is undermining the department’s budget for in-house treatment.

The rising costs of community care in the past few years have spawned debate over veterans’ access to private care, with Democrats largely seeking to strengthen the VA’s medical infrastructure and staff, which they say are less expensive and provide better care for veterans’ unique needs, compared with Republicans who believe the VA should provide quality in-house care but also allow veterans to choose who they want to see, especially if the VA can’t accommodate them in a timely fashion or with specialty care.

Collins said he supports the community care program as well as VA medical centers that veterans can “come home” to, with improved communications between civilian and government providers through an overhauled electronic health records system.

The VA’s adoption of the Federal Electronic Health Record system, a $16 billion project that was supposed to be complete by 2028 but is used at only six VA medical facilities, has been on hold for nearly two years as a result of safety concerns.

“We’re looking forward to the project review,” Collins said. “I’m putting on notice today that I’m committed to everyone here — we’re going to bring everyone to the table, that’s [the] vendor, that’s VA, everybody in the middle, and figure out what this problem is, because it’s time to fix it.”

Collins faced tough questions on female veterans’ access to care, including abortions, and replied by saying he would adhere to the law, citing the 1992 Veterans Health Care Act, which “specifically forbids the VA from doing abortions.”

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, noted that the VA published an interim rule shortly after the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning national protections for abortion — Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — to provide abortion counseling and procedures in the case of rape, incest, or when the life or health of the veteran is in danger.

Collins said the department would look at the rule and determine whether it complies with the law.

“It’s a debatable issue,” he said.

According to a VA report to Congress in October 2023, the department provided 88 abortions in the first year it offered the procedure.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is set to vote on Collins’ nomination Thursday. Should the panel approve him, the full Senate is expected to vote next week.

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