Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., left, and Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., listen to speakers during a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs meeting on voter registration at VA facilities on Sept. 10, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — House GOP lawmakers pushed through a subpoena Tuesday to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify its third-party partners conducting voter registration at some VA hospitals and clinics in battleground states before the presidential election.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted 12-7 along party lines to subpoena the VA for information about the third-party organizations establishing voter registration services at some VA medical facilities in Michigan with a similar outreach planned by the VA in several other states.
Michigan is one of seven battleground states in the 2024 presidential campaign in which voting is projected to be very close and could decide who wins the election.
“Michigan of course is a crucial swing state in the election,” said Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., chairman of the committee, who proposed the subpoena at the start of a three-hour hearing that was to examine an estimated $15 billion shortfall at the VA through 2025.
Citing a three-year-old executive order to promote voter access, the VA has partnered with third-party organizations recently to set up voter registration services at a limited number of pre-approved VA health facilities, he said.
The VA in Michigan has been registering voters at facilities in Saginaw and Detroit that provide care to veterans from counties that historically have shown “they can go red or blue in the November election,” Bost said. “I welcome a fact-based explanation for why VA is implementing this executive order in this manner.”
Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., speaks during a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs meeting on voter registration at VA facilities on Sept. 10, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
In addition to Michigan, the VA is considering launching similar voter registration services at VA facilities in other swing states — Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Those states also are considered up for grabs in November, with the winner of the 2020 presidential election in each one decided by a margin of 3% or less.
The VA also might open voter registration services at VA facilities in Kentucky, which historically votes for the Republican candidate in presidential elections, and in Hawaii, which favors Democrats.
“I did not expect this committee would be meeting about elections and voter registration,” Bost said. “For the VA’s entire existence, it has never operated as a voter registration agency.”
He said he was proposing the subpoena after the VA did not fully respond to his request for communications and documents related to the opening of voter registration services at VA facilities.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the committee traded accusations Tuesday about the other party’s agenda.
Rep. Mark Takano of California, the top Democrat on the committee, described Bost’s proposal for a subpoena as “weird and confusing.”
“I hope the veterans watching this hearing see this for what it is — an anti-democratic and purely political effort to stoke conspiracy theories and suppress efforts to help veterans and their caregivers vote,” he said.
Takano said the policy for expanding access to voter registration was in place under the administrations of former presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The National Voter Registration Act allows states to designate agencies as voter registration sites, he said.
“This subpoena is a gross and obvious effort to stifle voter registration,” Takano said.
But Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said states — not the federal government — have authority over the voter registration process.
“The last time I checked, states have the authority to conduct elections, not the federal government. If, in fact, you want the federal government to participate in the election process, then pass a law, not an executive order,” she said.
At his first House VA committee hearing, Rep. Timothy Kennedy, D-N.Y., tried to turn down the partisan bickering. He was appointed to the committee in July.
Kennedy said both sides can agree that they want to see greater access to voting for veterans.
Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-N.Y., speaks during a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs meeting on voter registration at VA facilities on Sept. 10, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
“This wasn’t one state that was uniquely chosen,” he said. “The Michigan VA took it upon themselves to pilot a program in two different areas of the state.”
Kennedy proposed to table the subpoena for a later date, but the suggestion was not accepted by the full committee.
Voting against the subpoena were seven Democrats: Reps. Takano, Kennedy, Mike Levin of California, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Delia Ramirez and Nikki Budzinski of Illinois and Greg Landsman of Ohio.
Voting for the subpoena were: Reps. Bost, Miller-Meeks, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Morgan Luttrell of Texas, Greg Murphy of North Carolina, Scott Franklin of Florida, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Keith Self of Texas and Jen Kiggans of Virginia.
“Don’t get me wrong. Registering eligible voters, including veterans participating in the election process, is a good thing. But this is about politicians directing federal resources to a specific part of the country for their own benefit,” Bost said.
