Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Veterans Service Organizations on Thursday continued to rail against the Trump administration's plans for major reductions to the Department of Veterans Affairs workforce.
During a call with reporters, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the plans to cut an additional 80,000 VA positions later this year would harm veterans, despite VA secretary Doug Collins saying they wouldn't.
“We’re here to sound the alarm because the VA is approaching a seismic disaster, historic in proportions, in terms of the effect on veterans employed in the United States government, but also veterans who benefit from its services,” Blumenthal said.
GovEXEC on Tuesday first reported on a memo from VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek that said VA is planning to reduce its workforce to pre-PACT Act levels. Both Blumenthal and Takano said the planned cuts would negatively impact the implementation of the legislation.
“VA worked diligently to hire additional claims processors, health providers and support staff specifically to handle the increased workload generated by this legislation,” he said. “Any significant reduction in personnel could create devastating backlogs, delay critical care and ultimately fail our veterans at a time when they need our support the most.”
Signed into law in 2022, the PACT Act provides VA health care and benefits to veterans of all eras who were exposed to toxins as a result of their military service.
In a video message, VA Secretary Doug Collins pushed back against claims the workforce reduction of about 15 percent would impact VA health care or benefits.
“There are many people complaining about the changes we’re making at the VA, but what most of them are really saying is, ‘Let’s just keep doing the same thing that the VA has always done,’” Collins said. “No, not going to happen. The days of kicking the can down the road, and measuring VA’s progress by how much money it spends and how many people it employs, rather than how many veterans it helps, are over.”
More than 25 percent of the VA’s workforce are veterans.
In a letter to the department from Blumenthal and Takano, the lawmakers ask for additional information about the planned workforce reduction. In February, about 2,400 probationary VA employees were let go.
During the call with reporters, Disabled American Veterans Deputy National Legislative Director Joy Ilen said VA leadership has not yet reached out for “any insight on how the proposed staffing reductions of this magnitude would affect the delivery of health care and benefits America’s veterans have earned.”
Blumenthal also said that “authoritative sources” have told him that VA is looking to move its pharmacy operations over to the Department of Defense and to end “most of its research efforts.”
“DoD and VA treat different conditions and different populations, forcing the VA to use DoD formulary for a population with multiple comorbidities just isn’t going to work,” he said.
Blumenthal added that VA studied the changes during the first Trump administration.
“They think using DoD will make it cheaper, but it won’t work that way, because top prescriptions are going to be very different among these two agencies,” he said.
VoteVets Senior Advisor retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton said the funding cuts would result in “losing resources now that we will be hard-pressed to recover.”
Republicans on VA committees in both the House and Senate also hae questions about the proposed cuts.
“I expect the VA to work with Congress to right-size the VA workforce and allow us to legislate necessary changes,” Senate VA Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said.
House VA Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said he has been in contact with Collins about the workforce reduction memo.
“I have questions about the impact these reductions and discussions could have on the delivery of services, especially following the implementation of the PACT Act. And from my position as Chairman, I will continue to ask questions and keep a close eye on how, or if, this plan evolves,” he said. “I will work with our entire Republican conference, our colleagues in the Senate, and the administration to ultimately put veterans back at the core of VA’s mission."
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.