The Trump administration’s DOGE agenda is gaining traction at the Department of Veterans Affairs. And not a moment too soon.

Last week, VA Secretary Doug Collins wrote in The Hill that the agency had eliminated almost 600 programs and will terminate over 80,000 employees. These efforts redirected $1.8 billion to serving veterans instead of government bureaucrats.

As Collins wrote, “the days of kicking the can down the road … are over.”

Unfortunately, decades of foreign wars and internal incompetence means that the journey is often just starting for America’s veterans. I know many of them — my father, grandfather and brother served. My grandfather used the GI Bill to become a therapist after serving in World War II and in Korea, working in military hospitals treating servicemen returning from Korean and Vietnamese combat zones with what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Today’s veterans don’t have quite the same journey as my grandfather, or the connections my father made while working at the Pentagon. Hundreds of thousands of veteran claims are backlogged, meaning it takes at least 125 days for a benefits conversation to begin. And while veterans will eventually get the money they are owed, they and their families are left in financial straits in the meantime.

Many veterans turn to third parties to help them navigate the VA. Some of those groups, like American Legion volunteers, are just as overwhelmed by the system as the veterans themselves. Others are attorneys who charge enormous fees. And still others are claims sharks, who charge their fees and pretend to help — only to run away with nothing to show for their “work.”

That’s why it’s important for Congress to support Collins’ work by passing the PLUS Act. Reintroduced this month and part of a House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs hearing last week, the Act protects veterans from claims sharks while opening up effective avenues for the former to more quickly receive their benefits.

This legislation expands VA accreditation to include private companies instead of limiting options to overworked volunteers at groups like American Legion, “free” attorneys who can take up to 33% of appealed back pay, and unregulated consultants who may or may not provide ethical services. By opening up accreditation, the VA will be able to regulate claims sharks who only want to take veterans’ money while still allowing veterans to work with truly good private companies. This can save the time of a second (or third, or 10th) appeal, and can save veterans huge payments on the back end of the process.

Organizations that illegally and unethically charge veterans fees but do not provide services will be prosecuted under this legislation. It’s the perfect balance of trusting veterans to make their own choices and providing security so that desperation doesn’t lead to being robbed blind.

In his column, Collins hinted at what the VA was paying for under prior leadership — contracts for meeting agendas, PowerPoints, and staff mentoring. Collins described these efforts as prioritizing employment for the agency instead of care for veterans.

No wonder an astonishing 40% of veterans are dissatisfied with the service they get. And that’s only going to get worse as veterans of our many foreign wars age.

Veterans need their benefits now, not years from now, and they deserve the freedom to find the help they need. After all, we trusted them to fly supersonic jets, fight in every condition imaginable, and even operate nuclear reactors aboard submarines thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface. Surely we can trust them now to choose their own benefits advocates.

Matt Cover, a former Washington, D.C., political journalist, is an employee benefits consultant in Arizona.