VA fires 1,400 more staffers in second round of workforce reductions

Veterans Affairs leaders dismissed more than 1,400 additional probationary employees on Monday evening, the second round of mass layoffs at the department this month.

Monday’s dismissals included bargaining-unit employees who have served less than two years in their posts. Officials said the moves did not impact any mission critical jobs, but did not provide any specifics of the types of assignments that were eliminated.

“These and other recent personnel decisions are extraordinarily difficult, but VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors as possible,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “These moves will not hurt VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries.”

Officials said specifically that Veterans Crisis Line responders were not affected by the latest or past dismissals. But workers within the department said that support staff for the crisis line were among the workers let go.

Collins insisted that the dismissals will produce “a change for the better” at the department. Officials estimate the job eliminations will save about $83 million annually, money that will be reassigned to other benefits and health care priorities.

On Feb. 13, VA leaders announced they would lay off about 1,000 probationary employees from non-bargaining units, a move they claimed would save about $98 million. In January, the department dismissed about 60 employees whose work focused on diversity and inclusion efforts, which President Donald Trump has labeled as harmful to the workforce.

The nearly 2,500 employees forced out of Veterans Affairs so far amounts to about 0.5% of the nearly 480,000 department workforce. Officials have not said how many workers have taken voluntary buyouts offered by the White House in the last few weeks.

Like past workforce reductions, Monday’s move drew immediate condemnation from Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“I am deeply disturbed by Secretary Collins’ continued actions that are harming veterans, military spouses, civil servants and their families,” said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “To say that these firings will not affect veterans’ care and benefits is a lie.”

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., echoed those concerns.

“Doug Collins continues to put the interests of veterans last with additional indiscriminate firings of VA employees who serve veterans, including patient-facing employees,” he said in a statement.

“These men and women were arbitrarily fired because Doug Collins views them as nothing more than a statistic for his press release. Make no mistake, these actions are destroying the trust veterans have in VA and will do long-term damage to VA’s ability to recruit and retain talented doctors, nurses and others wanting to pursue a career serving veterans.”

VA has about 40,000 probationary employees across the country, but officials said most are exempt from personnel actions because they serve in mission-critical positions.

They also said that about two-thirds of all VA positions are exempt from a federal hiring freeze put in place by Trump in January. But lawmakers and VA workers have said that efforts to fill those posts have slowed in recent weeks as managers try to wade through the new administration’s employment restrictions.