Organizers of a June 6 rally in Washington, D.C. argue that the Trump administration's proposed cuts to staffing levels and contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs will prove harmful to the veterans the VA serves.
VA officials are continuing their push back against that premise.
Unite for Veterans, a coalition of veterans and their advocates, is organizing the rally on the National Mall, and retired Marine Lt. Col. and spokesperson Joe Plenzer said the organization has watched as “Elon Musk, DOGE, and other senior people hack wildly away at other federal departments and agencies with disastrous effects.”
Plenzer added that there is no way that cutting the VA’s workforce by 70,000 won’t impact the services veterans receive, as VA Secretary Doug Collins claims.
“Secretary Collins’ math doesn’t add up and we don’t believe him when he says healthcare and benefits won’t be affected,” Plenzer told Connecting Vets. “Veterans have earned their VA benefits and VA healthcare through the blood, sweat and tears we have shed for this country. And our sense is that Secretary Collins is tangling with a third rail.
"The American people love our veterans and want to see them supported. This is why thousands of veterans will be protesting on the National Mall on Friday.”
VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz told Connecting Vets staffing levels across the entire department are being assessed, with the goal of implementing a reduction-in-force that could affect as many as 70,000 people, or 15 percent, of the department’s workforce, but this will be accomplished "without making cuts to health care or beneifts to veterans and VA beneficiaries."
According to Kasperowicz, mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors will be maintained, while the number of administrators, advisors and middle management positions will be reduced “to eliminate duplicative, unnecessary layers of management and bureaucracy that do nothing to serve our veterans and actually hinder our mission.”
Kasperowicz noted that the number of VA employees grew by more than 52,000 full-time equivalents from FY21 to FY24 as it beefed up its staffing level in response to the PACT Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, which expanded VA health care and benefits to veterans of all generations exposed to toxins as a result of their military service.
“Did all those extra people make things better for veterans?” he said. “No. In fact, VA’s performance actually got worse.”
According to Kasperowicz, during that period, wait times for primary care rose from 15.7 to 24.3 days; wait times for mental health care rose from 14.7 to 20.4 days; and wait times for specialty care rose from 24 to 38 days.
The VA’s disability claims backlog also grew under the Biden administration, growing from 211,409 on Jan. 18, 2021 to 264,717 by Jan. 2025. Last month, VA said its disability benefits compensation claims backlog is under 200,000 for the first time since March 5, 2023.
Kasperowicz also noted that President Donald Trump’s proposed FY2026 budget for VA is $441.3 billion, a 10 percent increase from FY205. That includes $134.6 billion in discretionary funding and $301.2 billion in mandatory funding.
But the Unite for Veterans organizers are concerned and numerous Veteran Service Organizations have pushed for increased transparency from the VA.
Rally speakers for Friday are expected to include representatives from the American Federation of government Employees; United Mine Workers; Army veteran and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); Air Force veteran and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-ill.); Marine Corps veteran and former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA); Marine Corps veteran and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America CEO Kyleanne Hunter; retired Navy Rear Adm. Mike Smith, National Security Leaders for America founder and president; Army veteran and Unite for Veterans Coalition National Organizers, Union Veterans Council, AFL-CIO Executive Director Will Attig; Army veteran and The Camberlain Network CEO Christopher Purdy; and Navy veteran, #AfghanEvac founder and CEO and Veterans Affairs Nurses, Doctors and Federal Wroker Veterans Shawn VanDiver.
The rally will also include a concert by the Dropkick Murphys.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.