Quick answer
The ad uses a real vote and a real VA warning, but it overstates what the public record shows. Jen Kiggans voted for the 2023 Limit, Save, Grow Act, and VA warned that applying its broad spending reductions proportionally could reduce VA funding by 22% nationally. That was a projection, not evidence that Hampton Roads veterans’ services were actually cut by 22%. Later VA staffing and vacancy reductions are documented, but they do not establish a 22% local reduction in appointments, benefits, medical capacity or services delivered.
The story
Elaine Luria’s 2026 campaign ads say Rep. Jen Kiggans voted “to cut veterans’ services by 22% in Hampton Roads.” The number comes from a real 2023 federal budget dispute, but it is not a measured 22% reduction in veterans’ services in Hampton Roads. [1][4]
The claim
In September 2026, Luria released veterans-focused ads titled “Vet Like Me” and “Burn Pits.” Her campaign said the ads contrast her work on toxic-exposure benefits with Kiggans’ record of “voting with Donald Trump to cut veterans’ services by 22% in Hampton Roads.” [4]
That wording combines a documented congressional vote, an executive-branch projection from 2023, and a local geographic claim.
Those are not the same thing.
Where the 22% number came from
The 22% figure traces to the 2023 Limit, Save, Grow Act, a House Republican debt-limit and spending package that Kiggans supported. [2]
The legislation did not write a 22% cut to the Department of Veterans Affairs into a VA-specific account. Instead, it imposed broad limits on discretionary spending. [1][3]
At the time, the Department of Veterans Affairs under the Biden administration warned that if the spending reductions were applied proportionally to VA, funding could fall by 22%. VA said such a reduction could mean 81,000 fewer Veterans Health Administration jobs and 30 million fewer outpatient visits nationwide. [1]
That was a projection of how the broad spending cap could affect VA if implemented in that way.
It was not a report that veterans’ services in Hampton Roads had already been cut by 22%.
What Kiggans said at the time
Kiggans disputed Democratic claims that the bill would cut veterans’ benefits and services. Republicans argued that veterans could be protected when Congress later wrote the detailed appropriations bills. [3]
That distinction was central to the 2023 dispute.
The debt-limit bill set broad spending targets. It did not itself appropriate specific final dollar amounts for every federal agency. Critics said the overall cap could force deep reductions unless particular departments were protected. Supporters said future appropriations could prioritize VA within the lower overall spending level. [1][3]
The 2023 package did not ultimately become the governing appropriations framework in the form passed by the House.
What has actually happened at VA since then
Separate from that 2023 fight, the Department of Veterans Affairs has undergone real workforce reductions during the Trump administration.
VA said in July 2025 that it was on pace to reduce total staffing by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of fiscal year 2025 through attrition, retirements, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze rather than a department-wide reduction in force. [5]
Virginia’s U.S. senators later said more than 1,700 vacant VA positions had been eliminated across the Commonwealth, including more than 700 vacancies at the Hampton VA Medical Center. [6]
Those figures document a significant workforce contraction affecting Virginia.
They still do not establish that Hampton Roads veterans’ services were cut by 22%.
A vacancy reduction is not automatically equivalent to a 22% reduction in appointments, benefits, medical capacity or services delivered. To make that claim, a source would need a defined Hampton Roads service baseline and evidence showing a 22% decrease from it.
No such public measure is cited in the campaign release.
Kiggans’ more recent VA votes
Kiggans has also voted for veterans appropriations since the 2023 debt-limit fight.
In June 2025 she voted for the House FY2026 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. The measure passed the House 218-206 and provided hundreds of billions of dollars in mandatory and discretionary funding for veterans programs and military construction. [7]
Her office has also highlighted provisions she supported involving veterans health care, caregivers, mental health, senior representation and military family quality-of-life issues.
Those later votes do not erase the 2023 debt-limit vote. But they are relevant when evaluating a present-tense claim that her record is simply one of cutting veterans’ services.
What the ad gets right
Kiggans did support the 2023 House debt-limit package. [2]
VA did warn that applying the bill’s broad spending reductions to the department could produce a 22% funding reduction. [1]
And the VA workforce has since shrunk nationally, while hundreds of vacant positions have been removed from the Hampton VA system. [5][6]
Those are all documented facts.
What the ad overstates
There is no evidence cited showing that veterans’ services in Hampton Roads were actually reduced by 22%.
The 22% figure was a 2023 projection tied to one interpretation of a broad spending bill. The local Hampton Roads wording makes the number sound like an observed regional service cut. [1][4]
That is a different claim.
Bottom line
The ad starts with a real Kiggans vote and a real VA warning, but it turns a national 2023 projection into language that sounds like a measured 22% cut to Hampton Roads veterans’ services.
The public record supports saying Kiggans voted for a 2023 spending package that VA warned could produce large veterans cuts if applied proportionally. [1][2]
It also supports reporting that VA staffing has since declined and that more than 700 Hampton VA vacancies were eliminated. [5][6]
It does not support stating, without additional evidence, that veterans’ services in Hampton Roads were actually cut by 22%.
Sources
- Budget Cut Proposals Would Hurt Veterans — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA said an across-the-board reduction of roughly 22% versus enacted FY2023 non-defense discretionary levels could mean 30 million fewer Veteran outpatient visits and 81,000 fewer VHA jobs.
- Roll Call 199: Limit, Save, Grow Act — Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. The House passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act 217–215; Jen Kiggans voted Yea.
- Kiggans says the ads are a lie. Democrats say her voting record tells a different story — Virginia Scope. Reporting describes Kiggans’s response, the Limit, Save, Grow Act dispute, the lack of VA-specific protection in the bill, and the VA projection.
- Elaine Luria Releases Two Ads (“Vet Like Me,” “Burn Pits”) — Blue Virginia. The reproduced campaign release identifies the two ads and quotes the claim that Kiggans voted with Donald Trump to cut veterans’ services by 22% in Hampton Roads.
- VA to reduce staff by nearly 30K by end of FY2025 — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA said it was on pace to reduce total staff by nearly 30,000 by FY2025 through attrition, retirements, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze.
- Warner, Kaine Press VA on Elimination of Over 1,700 Positions in Virginia, Tens of Thousands Nationwide — Office of Senator Mark Warner. The senators said more than 1,700 vacant VA positions were eliminated in Virginia, including more than 700 at Hampton VAMC.
- Final Vote Results for Roll Call 182: H.R. 3944 — Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. The House passed the FY2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 218–206; Jen Kiggans voted Yea.