A shadow hearing led by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on April 2 examined the Trump administration’s mass DOGE-related firings and their impacts on veterans and their families, who make up one-third of the federal workforce.
“These firings have disproportionately affected our VA and veterans’ workforce, and the harm to them individually will become painfully clear today,” Sen. Blumenthal said during his opening remarks. “They have suffered from uncertainty, from financial distress, from emotional hardship, in ways that I think Elon Musk and Donald Trump need to understand.”
The Trump administration’s mass terminations have already led to the unprecedented firing of more than 6,000 veterans and last month. An internal memo leaked the Trump administration’s plans to cut more than 80,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees, which would include at least 20,000 veterans, who make up 25 percent of VA’s workforce.
Sen. Blumenthal was joined at the shadow hearing by Senate Democrats and witnesses, who included veterans who worked in the federal government and were fired by the Trump administration.
Marine Corps veteran and military spouse Kira Carrigan discussed the impact her termination by DOGE from a remote position at the Office of Personnel Management is having on military families like hers.
“One of the consistent ways to find employment [as a military spouse] is through the federal government,” Carrigan said. “Federal employment] is not only there for [military spouses] — but it’s advertised to us. You are told to apply for these positions.
"When we [Permanent Change of Station] again, there’s not going to be the opportunity to have a federal government position, because now we’re under a hiring freeze. It’s not even something that will be available to us.”
Air Force veteran Shernice Mundell was fired after starting a new position at the Office of Personnel Management.
“A lot of people get it confused when they say OPM is the one that’s doing the firing. It’s not OPM, it’s DOGE,” she said. “And they’re just going under the guise of being OPM.”
Mundell said no one from DOGE ever reached out to understand her role, or the role of her office at OPM, helping retired postal service employees with health care benefits.
Sen. Blumenthal invited Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and acting OPM Director Charles Ezell to testify, but they failed to respond to the Congressional inquiry.
Sen. Blumenthal and 21 of his Democratic colleagues have introduced the Putting Veterans First Act, which would protect veterans, military spouses, and VA employees from indiscriminately targeted DOGE cuts across the federal government.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.