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Early this year, the Trump administration threatened to cut tens of thousands of staff from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Bipartisan pushbacks seemed to turn that plan around, but now the VA secretary says the department will trim at least 25,000 vacant positions from the roles. That's after about that same number have already left the VA this year, as NPR's Quil Lawrence reports.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: The VA avoided layoffs, even during the Elon-Musk-with-a-chainsaw days early in this administration, by offering early retirement, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze to simply not refill positions that became vacant. That accounted for almost 30,000 fewer staff across the VA's hundreds of clinics, hospitals and offices. Now, Secretary Doug Collins says more cuts are coming, but only on paper.
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DOUG COLLINS: No VA employees are being removed, and veteran care will not be impacted.
LAWRENCE: Collins says about 25,000 positions, most of them added during the pandemic, will be eliminated.
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COLLINS: All we are doing is taking unfilled and unnecessary positions off the books. Most of these positions haven't been filled in a year or more, and all VA medical facilities continue to hire people as needed.
LAWRENCE: Collins posted these remarks on social media in response to a Washington Post report that the job cuts could hurt veterans' care and benefits. Collins said no VA staff would be fired. But many Democrats in Congress simply don't believe that giving up on hiring for these positions won't hurt veterans' care. Pennsylvania Representative Chris Deluzio, an Iraq vet himself, held a press event on Capitol Hill in response.
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CHRIS DELUZIO: Our country has a major health care staffing shortage. Our veterans need and have earned fully funded and staffed VA hospitals and clinics. It's simple. If our VA needs to hire more doctors, nurses - you name it - to meet the health care needs of our veterans, you ought to be hiring them, not slashing their positions.
LAWRENCE: VA has felt that nationwide health care shortage and has not always been able to compete for hiring. A VA inspector general report in August found severe staffing shortages - 50% worse than in the previous year. Hiring nurses, medical officers and mental health care remained a particular problem, which is why skeptics don't see how VA can justify reducing its hiring goals.
CHRISSY HOULAHAN: That's not reform. That is privatization by neglect.
LAWRENCE: Representative Chrissy Houlahan - also a Pennsylvania Democrat, also a veteran - says that after a year of a hiring freeze and losing so many experienced staff, it's even harder for the VA to attract talent. She notes that the Trump VA favors increasing community care. That's when VA doesn't have an appointment available and instead pays for a veteran to see a private provider. It's much more expensive.
HOULAHAN: I think it is intentional that the administration is undermining and winnowing out the talent that exists in the VA. And then they will shrug their shoulders and say, see? - it wasn't working, and move to privatization.
LAWRENCE: VA calls that argument a boogeyman meant to scare veterans that the Trump administration is going to take their VA health care away. A VA spokesman reiterated that medical facilities nationwide are continuing to fill health care vacancies as needed. It will likely take several months to see how or if these changes affect how long veterans are waiting to get their medical care.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
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