“We must expand the VA, not hollow it out.”
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the targeted
positions—many of which are unfilled—include doctors, nurses, and support
staff. A spokesperson for the VA, led by former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.),
described the jobs as “mostly Covid-era roles that are no longer necessary.”
VA workers,
veterans advocates, and a union representing hundreds of thousands of
department employees disputed that characterization as the agency faces staff
shortages across the country.
“We are all doing the work of others to compensate,” one VA employee told the Post. “The idea that relief isn’t coming is really, really disappointing.”
Thomas Dargon Jr., deputy general counsel of the American
Federation of Government Employees, said remaining VA employees “are obviously
going to be facing the brunt of any further job cuts or reorganization that
results in employees having to do more work with less.”
The advocacy organization VoteVets cast the job cuts as
another step toward the longstanding GOP goal of privatizing
the VA.
“This is outrageous,” the group wrote on social media. “It is
abundantly clear that Republicans and
the Trump administration want to strangle the VA until it all gets privatized.”
News of the impending job cuts came months after the Trump
administration moved to gut collective bargaining protections for
many VA employees and as recent staffing cuts continued to hamper veterans’
services nationwide.
“Wait times for new mental health appointments have
increased sharply since January in my home state, Connecticut,” Sen. Richard
Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said during a Senate hearing earlier this month. “For
example, the most recent data shows the current wait time for a new patient
mental health appointment at the Orange VA Clinic in Connecticut—an outpatient
facility specializing in mental health—is 208 days.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee,
said in a statement Sunday that “it is unacceptable that the US
Department of Veterans Affairs plans to eliminate as many as 35,000 healthcare
positions this month.”
“This is especially outrageous given the reality that VA
facilities in Vermont and
across the country already face severe staffing challenges,” said Sanders.
“When someone puts their life on the line to defend this country in uniform, we
in turn must provide them with the best quality healthcare available. These
layoffs are unacceptable and must be reversed. We must expand the VA, not
hollow it out. And I will do everything I can to make that happen.”
