VA Advisory Committees Stall as Seats Go Unfilled

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. The panel Congress created to give women veterans a voice inside the Department of Veterans Affairs has not posted a set of meeting minutes since December 2024. That date comes from the VA’s own Advisory Committee Management Office page. The committee’s charter, signed by VA Secretary Doug Collins in October 2025, calls for two meetings a year.

It is not alone. We checked the VA’s posted records for three VA advisory committees that veterans and lawmakers flagged this fall. One has gone quiet for nearly two years and another for 14 months. The research panel on Gulf War Illness met once in 2026, then lost its September meeting for lack of a quorum, Stars and Stripes reported. That is the same group of veterans who got a memorial on the National Mall last weekend.

What VA advisory committees’ own records show

The VA runs 27 advisory committees, and Congress wrote 18 of them into law, including panels on homelessness, cemeteries and prosthetics, according to Stars and Stripes. Fewer than half posted meeting minutes in 2026, the paper found. Here is where the three committees named in recent complaints stand.

Women veterans lost their committee chair in April

The Advisory Committee on Women Veterans exists under 38 U.S.C. 542, and the law requires the secretary to consult it on health care, benefits and outreach. Its charter requires an annual report by July 1, according to a Sept. 18 release from Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

Its chair, retired Col. Wanda A. Wright, resigned in April. The lawmakers’ letter says she left in protest of the VA having “effectively rendered the Committee inactive.”

Ten House Democrats, led by Goodlander and Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, signed the Sept. 17 letter to Collins. They asked how many times the committee met in 2025 and 2026, whether its budget and staff were moved elsewhere, and how the VA plans to restart meetings. They wanted answers by Oct. 2. We could not find a public reply.

Gulf War Illness research panel down to four members

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses advises the secretary on research into the health effects of 1990 to 1991 service in the Southwest Asia theater. Its charter calls for 14 members. Former members told Stars and Stripes it has dwindled to four.

Ronald Brown, an Army veteran with Gulf War Illness, told the paper he has applied for reappointment three times over two years without a decision. “Seats are not being filled,” he said.

The panel’s latest posted minutes are from Feb. 17, 2026, on its VA committee page. One piece kept working. Its Subcommittee on Veteran Engagement held a public listening session for Gulf War veterans in Washington on Oct. 23, according to a Federal Register notice, one day before the Desert Storm memorial opened on the National Mall. What it heard goes to the full committee, which needs a quorum to act.

The VA’s answer, and how to apply for a seat

VA press secretary Quinn Slaven told Stars and Stripes the department is “always recruiting” for its committees. He did not say why some have stopped meeting. Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the VA schedules the meetings and appoints the members, so a committee with empty seats cannot fix itself.

These panels advise on the same health and benefits policies behind the VA disability rating changes we broke down this week. If you are a veteran, caregiver or survivor who wants a seat, the VA says to email a resume and cover letter to vaadvisorycmte@va.gov. Meetings are announced in the Federal Register, and most are open to the public, so you can sit in and comment. More coverage is on our Veterans page.

Served on a VA advisory committee, or applied for a seat and heard nothing back? Tell us through our Contact page.

Rocci J. Stucci is the founder and CEO of Stucci Media and host of The Rocci Stucci Show.