Veterans Administration Planning Mass Layoffs to Begin in June: Report

The Veterans Administration (VA) is planning for mass layoffs that will start in June, according to Reuters, which reviewed an internal government memo.

The March 6 memo instructs the VA’s human resources department to review agency operations by June. Once the review is complete, “VA will initiate Department-wide RIF actions,” referring to a reduction in force.

At least 25 percent of the VA’s 470,000 employees are veterans, so approximately 20,000 veterans could lose their federal employment if the agency cuts more than 80,000 jobs as planned. Last month the VA laid off 2,400 federal employees.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told veterans that change would be coming, “so get used to it” in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) and emailed to veterans.

“Right now, VA’s biggest problem is that its bureaucracy and inefficiencies are getting in the way of customer convenience and service to veterans,” Collins said last week. The VA has long been known for making veterans wait long periods of time before they can receive health care, although that has improved over recent years. The Biden administration hired tens of thousands of new VA employees, including 61,000 in fiscal year 2023 alone. It is unclear how laying off a quarter of the workforce would make the issue of long wait periods or other inefficiencies any better.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has already made deep cuts to the federal workforce, reducing the number of employees by around 100,000 through layoffs and promises of buyouts.

Alina Habba, a close Trump ally and counselor to the president, had harsh words for veterans last Tuesday, saying some laid off vets may not be “fit to have a job… or willing to come to work.”

“We have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” Habba said. “That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or not willing to come to work.”

A veteran who works for the VA as a therapist told The War Horse he is scared for his future: “The last time I felt this level of fear was in combat.”

“At least in combat, I knew my mission. I was supported in it by my teammates, by my leadership, and I had agency. I had a weapon. I could fight against a tangible enemy,” he said. “Now it’s just an invisible cloud of dread.”