VA avoids mass layoffs: How Veterans Affairs is protecting jobs and care amid staffing cuts

Economic Times

15 hours ago

The Veterans Affairs Department will reduce staff by 30,000 through retirements. This avoids large layoffs initially planned. Veterans groups and Congress worried about the impact on veteran care. The VA assures safeguards are in place to protect services. Staff reductions happened through attrition and a hiring freeze. Secretary Collins says performance is improving despite fewer employees.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said on Monday it will not do a big layoff like many other federal agencies did under the Trump administration's U.S. DOGE Service. VA was originally planning to cut nearly 83,000 workers, as revealed in a leaked memo in March, but now it will only reduce staff by about 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, as per the reports.VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins had earlier said these cuts were 'tough but necessary' and warned staff to 'get used to it.' The White House said cutting VA staff would make the agency less 'bloated' and more efficient and transparent, as per the report by The Washington Post.However, many veterans and advocacy groups strongly opposed the deep cuts, saying it would hurt the quality of VA services. VA employees' morale dropped, and many workers left their jobs because of fears about layoffs. The VA decided not to do a big Reduction in Force (RIF) after veterans groups, Congress, and staff warned that fewer workers would hurt veteran care.Veterans make up a large part of the federal workforce, so cutting VA jobs risked upsetting a key Republican voting group. President Trump is popular with veterans and had said he would not cut their VA benefits. VA avoided big layoffs because many workers left voluntarily through retirement, normal job attrition, and delayed resignations, as stated by the reports.A federal hiring freeze also helped reduce staff numbers without forced layoffs. VA had about 484,000 employees in January but had about 467,000 by June—a loss of 17,000 workers. Between July and September, VA expects 12,000 more employees to leave by normal attrition or retirement programs, as mentioned in the report by The Washington Post.In an email to VA staff, Secretary Collins said after four months of study and action, VA is 'headed in the right direction' for both staff levels and customer service. Collins said even with 30,000 staff leaving, VA performance is improving, like fewer veterans waiting for disability benefits and better claims processing, according to the report.VA said it has safeguards to protect veteran care and benefits during staff reductions, with many mission-critical jobs exempt from retirement offers and hiring freezes. The VA is one of the biggest federal employers and provides medical care to millions of veterans and families, as per the reports.Earlier in the year, VA already lost 2,400 workers due to layoffs in February. Thousands of VA workers chose early retirement this spring to avoid future cuts. In June, thousands of veterans protested in Washington and many other states against more VA staff cuts, according to the report by The Washington Post.The reversal on big layoffs may also reflect the loss of power of Elon Musk and the DOGE team, who started cutting staff aggressively in January but later fell out with Trump and left. Some DOGE team members remain in government, working on Trump's policies like changing gun rules and federal regulations, as stated by the reports.Last month, DOGE lost control over awarding billions in federal funds, showing its reduced influence. Collins thanked VA staff in his email, calling them 'an important part' of the effort to improve the agency, as mentioned in the report by The Washington Post.No, the VA plans to reduce staff by about 30,000 through retirements and attrition, avoiding large layoffs.The VA says it has safeguards to protect veteran care and mission-critical jobs during staff reductions.