VA will cut 25,000 positions it has been unable to fill : NPR
The VA secretary says the department will remove at least 25,000 vacant positions from the rolls. That’s after about the same number have already left the VA this year.
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Earlier this year, the Trump administration threatened to cut tens of thousands of Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Bipartisan pushback seemed to overturn that plan, but now the VA secretary says the department will eliminate at least 25,000 vacant positions. That’s after about the same number have already left the VA this year, as NPR’s Quil Lawrence reports.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: The VA has avoided layoffs, even during the Elon-Musk chainsaw era early in this administration, by offering early retirement, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze to simply not fill positions that have become vacant. That’s nearly 30,000 fewer employees at 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 cut and veterans’ care will not be affected.
LAWRENCE: Collins says about 25,000 positions, mostly created during the pandemic, will be eliminated.
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COLLINS: All we’re doing is eliminating vacant and unnecessary positions. Most of these positions have not been filled for a year or more, and all VA medical facilities continue to hire staff as needed.
LAWRENCE: Collins posted the remarks on social media in response to a Washington Post report that said job cuts could hurt veterans’ care and benefits. Collins said no VA staffers would be laid off. But many Democrats in Congress simply don’t believe that forgoing recruiting for these positions won’t hurt veterans’ care. Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio, himself an Iraq veteran, held a news conference at the Capitol in response.
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CHRIS DELUZIO: Our country is experiencing a serious shortage of health personnel. 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 – etc. – to meet the health care needs of our veterans, you should hire them, not eliminate their positions.
LAWRENCE: VA has felt a nationwide health care shortage and has not always been able to compete for hiring. A VA inspector general report released in August found serious staffing shortages, 50 percent worse than the previous year. Hiring nurses, doctors and mental health care workers remains a particular problem, so skeptics don’t see how VA can justify reducing its hiring goals.
CHRISSY HOULAHAN: It’s not a reform. This is privatization by negligence.
LAWRENCE: Rep. Chrissy Houlahan – also a Pennsylvania Democrat and a veteran – says after a year of hiring freezes and losing so many experienced staff, it’s even harder for the VA to attract talent. She notes that the Trump VA supports increasing community care. This is when VA does not have an appointment available and instead pays a veteran to see a private provider. It’s much more expensive.
HOULAHAN: I think it’s intentional that the administration is undermining and eliminating the talent that exists in the VA. And then they will shrug their shoulders and say: see? – it didn’t work, and let’s move on to privatization.
LAWRENCE: VA calls this argument a bogeyman designed to scare veterans that the Trump administration is going to take away their VA health care. A VA spokesperson reiterated that medical facilities nationwide continue to fill health care vacancies as needed. It will likely take several months to see how or if these changes will affect the length of time veterans wait for their medical care.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
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