In a Monday news release, the VA said it was on pace to reduce its total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year due to "the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition."
That reduction eliminates "the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force" of up to 15 percent of employees, or some 83,000 individuals, according to the release.
The announcement marks a sharp turn for the Trump administration, which for months has sought to eliminate 83,000 roles — reducing the VA's workforce to its 2019 size of fewer than 400,000 staffers — as outlined in an internal memo sent to employees in March.
VA Secretary Doug Collins said at the time that the cuts were following President Trump's executive order, signed in February, directing all federal agencies to prepare for a reduction in force, meaning large-scale layoffs. He also insisted that the move was tough but necessary and that the cuts would not affect health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.
The White House, meanwhile, stated that the VA had become "bloated" and claimed that the reduced jobs would make the agency more efficient.
But Democratic lawmakers were quick to push back on the plans, with Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) calling the development "a gut punch" and "breathtaking in its potential significance and its malevolence and cruelty" to former U.S. service members.
Veterans and their advocate groups also warned that the administration's aggressive approach to shrink the VA will have long-term and devastating effects for veterans, who can already face long wait times for VA care.
In its Monday statement, the VA said it had recorded roughly 484,000 employees in January, a number that was down to 467,000 by June — a loss of nearly 17,000 staffers.
The agency projects that between July and Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, nearly 12,000 additional workers will exit through normal attrition, voluntary early retirement or the deferred resignation program.
The VA claims it has "multiple safeguards in place to ensure these staff reductions do not impact Veteran care or benefits."
But Blumenthal, in a statement released Monday, warned that even as the VA abandons "its disastrous plan," its announcement makes clear it "is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE's slash and trash policies," referring to the Department of Government Efficiency.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
