{"id":10093,"date":"2025-03-10T15:49:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10093"},"modified":"2025-03-10T15:49:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:49:48","slug":"gut-punch-democrats-decry-trumps-plan-to-cut-80000-employees-at-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10093","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gut punch\u2019: Democrats decry Trump\u2019s plan to cut 80,000 employees at VA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"319\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20250310154643.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10094\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20250310154643.jpg 319w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20250310154643-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 319px) 100vw, 319px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic lawmakers and veterans\u2019 groups are fuming over the Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019s (VA) plans to cut roughly 80,000 employees in the coming months, decrying the lack of transparency and lack of pushback from their colleagues across the aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA officials insist the dismissals won\u2019t damage or delay veterans\u2019 medical care or benefits. VA Secretary Doug Collins, who confirmed the planned firings on Wednesday, maintained that the effort is difficult but necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Democrats complain they have not received any response to inquiries about the dismissals \u2014 revealed in a leaked memo on Tuesday \u2014 nor to questions about earlier layoffs of several thousand agency employees last month. Among the queries are who will lose their jobs, why, and how the staff changes will impact VA offices and medical centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called the development \u201ca gut punch\u201d and \u201cbreathtaking in its potential significance and its malevolence and cruelty\u201d to former U.S. service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re on a path downward here for the VA and it is the result of the malign, reckless, cruel policies of this administration, which unfortunately regards veterans as roadkill on the way to tax cuts through the revenue they\u2019re trying to save,\u201d Blumenthal told reporters via video call on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re laying waste to the VA in the name of cutting waste, and they\u2019re doing it with a meat axe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blumenthal\u2019s counterpart in the lower chamber, House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs ranking member Mark Takano (D-Calif.), said the Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s goals were \u201cincomprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe deliberate dismantling of VA\u2019s workforce isn\u2019t just dangerous, it\u2019s an outright betrayal of veterans,\u201d said Takano, speaking on the same video call. \u201cAny 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Takano, Blumenthal and 19 other House and Senate members also sent a joint letter to Collins on Thursday denouncing the planned cuts, saying it \u201cdefies logic and reason that the agency could cut an additional 83,000 employees, beyond the 2,400 or more they have already terminated, without healthcare and benefits being interrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The blowback came after the leak of an internal memo to top VA staff, first reported by Government Executive, that outlined plans to cut back the agency\u2019s workforce to just under 400,000. That would mirror the VA\u2019s 2019 staffing levels, before the department undertook significant hiring efforts under former President Biden, who expanded coverage of veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The VA\u2019s current workforce sits around 480,000, after roughly 2,500 employees were already removed via probationary employee dismissals and the elimination of diversity and inclusion jobs in the weeks after President Trump took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senior agency staff are now instructed to plan for a VA-wide reorganization in August to \u201cresize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure,\u201d according to the Tuesday memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also orders agency officials to work with Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to \u201cmove out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach\u201d to the Trump administration\u2019s goals of gutting the federal civil servant workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collins later confirmed the document in a video posted to social media Wednesday, saying \u201cthings need to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019 numbers of roughly 398,000 employees from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees \u2014 a nearly 15 percent decrease,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That follows a VA spending review last week, which targeted nearly 600 contracts to be canceled for a reported savings of about $900 million \u2014 with officials declining to provide a public list of the terminated deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats and veterans\u2019 groups have increasingly voiced their worries that the aggressive approach the Trump administration is taking will have long-term and devastating effects for veterans, who can already face long wait times for VA care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the VA currently experiencing its highest-ever service levels, delivering more than 127 million health care appointments across more than 9 million enrollees, a cut of 15 percent to the agency\u2019s workforce can only have negative consequences for those it serves, critics say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s more, as more than 25 percent of VA employees are veterans, the workforce reductions likely mean lost jobs for former service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser with the liberal veterans group VoteVets, told reporters Thursday that while improvement is critical to the VA\u2019s mission, \u201cwhat this administration is doing is not about efficiency or improving care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He pointed to remarks made by Trump adviser Alina Habba, who on Tuesday suggested that some federal workers who are veterans might not be \u201cfit to have a job,\u201d a quote that quickly prompted outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,\u201d Habba told reporters outside the White House. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they\u2019re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eaton said that stance reflected that the DOGE cuts are \u201cfar more about cruelty than efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called on Congress to intervene in the firings, saying that Trump and DOGE\u2019s \u201creckless plan\u201d will backfire on millions of veterans and their families<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe DOGE plunder of career VA employees, adding to the illegal mass firings of thousands of probationary employees, can only make matters worse,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cVeterans and their families will suffer unnecessarily, and the will of Congress will be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most Republicans so far have chosen to keep quiet or offer muted responses to the Trump administration\u2019s changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A former VA secretary under Trump\u2019s first term, David Shulkin, said Thursday on CNN that he did not \u201cknow any system that slashes its way to excellence,\u201d though he did not outright condemn the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) sent a letter to Collins on Tuesday, asking for a review of the VA\u2019s workforce reduction process and suggesting he consider rehiring laid-off personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Department of Veterans Affairs has a responsibility to those it serves to exercise the utmost degree of discipline when reducing the workforce,\u201d Barrett wrote. \u201cWe must collectively recognize that any veteran who hangs up their boots and continues to serve their country at the VA is cut from a different cloth. It is incumbent upon us to treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve, even if separation is warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Wednesday evening Cabinet meeting at the White House, Collins reportedly stressed the VA should not bluntly slash employees and that it instead needs to be strategic about it, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump agreed, the Times reported, and said the VA should keep smart employees and get rid of bad ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic lawmakers and veterans\u2019 groups are fuming over the Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019s (VA) plans to cut roughly 80,000 employees in the coming months, decrying the lack of transparency and lack of pushback from their colleagues across the aisle. VA officials insist the dismissals won\u2019t damage or delay veterans\u2019 medical care or benefits. VA Secretary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2035,3167,3168],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-they","tag-va","tag-veterans"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Gut punch\u2019: Democrats decry Trump\u2019s plan to cut 80,000 employees at VA - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10093\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Gut punch\u2019: Democrats decry Trump\u2019s plan to cut 80,000 employees at VA - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democratic lawmakers and veterans\u2019 groups are fuming over the Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019s (VA) plans to cut roughly 80,000 employees in the coming months, decrying the lack of transparency and lack of pushback from their colleagues across the aisle. VA officials insist the dismissals won\u2019t damage or delay veterans\u2019 medical care or benefits. 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