Veterans Affairs dramatically scales back layoffs to less than half of initial plan

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has abandoned plans to cut more than 80,000 employees, scaling back that number to just under 30,000 after a massive outcry from veterans, advocate groups and lawmakers and an exodus of individuals from the agency.

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 is 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 less than 400,000 staffers — as laid out 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, said the VA had grown “bloated” and claimed the slashed 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. 

His counterpart in the lower chamber, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Mark Takano (D-Calif.), said the Trump’s administration’s goals were “incomprehensible.” 

“Any significant reduction in personnel could create devastating backlogs, delay critical care and ultimately fail our veterans at a time when they need our support the most,” Takano said in March.

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 addition, former service members were likely to get swept up in the steep workforce reductions as more than 25 percent of VA employees are veterans.

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,” that all VA mission-critical positions are exempt from deferred resignations and voluntary early retirement, and more than 350,000 positions are exempt from the federal hiring freeze.

But Blumenthal, in a statement released Monday, warned that even as the VA abandons “its disastrous plan to fire 83,000 more employees,” 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.

He stressed that the staffers who have left “is not ‘natural’ attrition, it is not strategic, and it will inevitably impact veterans’ care and benefits—no matter what blanket assurances the VA Secretary hides behind.”

The VA is one of the largest employers of federal workers, with the current 467,000 staffers delivering more than 127 million health care appointments across more than 9 million enrollees.

The agency has already experienced cuts early in Trump’s second term, losing 2,400 staffers to layoffs in February.