Department of Veterans Affairs layoffs: Trump's plan to sack over 83,000 junked, VA plans to shed employees through retirements and resignations
Donald Trump
's orders to bring down the cost.
But the plan to fire more 83,000 employees, which was confirmed by a memo sent by VA Chief of Staff
Christopher Syrek
, seems to have been shelved. However, the VA said Monday (July 14), it still plans to bring down the employee strength. This will be undertaken by resignations and retirements. The numbers by which the employee strenth will go down - 30,000, a figure much less than the over 80,000 circulating in March 2025.
"The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced it's on pace to reduce total VA staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of fiscal year 2025, eliminating the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force," a VA press release dated July 7 stated.
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It went on to highlight the number of employees in the department had come down in the first five month of 2025.
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"While VA had been considering a department-wide RIF to reduce staff levels by up to 15%, employee reductions through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition have eliminated the need for that RIF. The numbers break down as follows:
VA had roughly 484,000 employees on Jan. 1, 2025, and 467,000 employees as of June 1, 2025 - a reduction of nearly 17,000.
Between now and Sept. 30, the department expects nearly 12,000 additional VA employees to exit through normal attrition, voluntary early retirement authority ) or the deferred resignation program.
VA has multiple safeguards in place to ensure these staff reductions do not impact Veteran care or benefits. All VA mission-critical positions are exempt from the DRP and VERA, and more than 350,000 positions are exempt from the federal hiring freeze."
Trump's initial plan saw military veterans and Democrats voicing their strong protest. They were joined by a small group of Republicans too.
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After his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States of America in January, Trump set up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and brought in
Elon Musk
, then his close confidant, to shed the flab from the federal government.
Musk, however, left the Trump administration in last May 2025 following a rift with the US President and since then the two have indugled in a series of verbal altercation on the policies adopted by the White House.
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