Braxton Taylor
The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to fire more than 80,000 employees under a sweeping reorganization effort being planned to comply with President Donald Trump’s orders to slash the federal government, according to an internal VA memo obtained by Military.com.
In the memo, VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek said the department’s “initial objective” is to return to 2019 staffing levels of 399,957 employees — or about 83,000 fewer employees than the VA has right now.
If implemented, the layoffs would bring the department down to the level of employees it had before the PACT Act, the wide-ranging 2022 law that expanded VA health care and benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service. After the law was passed, the VA under the Biden administration embarked on a massive hiring spree in order to ensure the department could handle the influx of new patients and benefits claims.
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“VA, in partnership with our DOGE leads, will move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach to identify and eliminate waste, reduce management and bureaucracy, reduce footprint, and increase workforce efficiency,” Syrek wrote in the memo, referring to the Elon Musk-led White House office that has, in Musk’s words, been taking a “chain saw” to the federal government.
The VA did not immediately respond to Military.com’s request for comment on the memo, which was first reported by news outlet Government Executive, but VA Secretary Doug Collins posted a video to social media late Wednesday afternoon addressing the planned firings.
Under the plan outlined in Syrek’s memo, the VA will complete an internal review May 9 and publish its reorganization plan in June. Layoffs would begin in August, according to the memo.
If implemented, the layoffs would reverse the extensive hiring the Biden administration undertook to implement that PACT Act.
In 2023 alone, the VA’s Veterans Health Administration hired nearly 62,000 new employees. Those included about 12,000 new nurses, as well hundreds of new psychiatrists, a category of doctors that government watchdogs have said the VA had a “severe shortage” of, Military.com previously reported.
The “reduction in force,” as the layoffs are formally called, is being planned as part of Trump’s February executive order requiring agencies to work with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and subsequent guidance from the White House offices in charge of budgets and personnel directing agencies to prepare for large-scale layoffs.
Since its first day in office, the Trump administration, under the auspices of DOGE, has hacked away at the size of the federal government, including with a hiring freeze and mass firings. DOGE has also moved to cancel a wide array of contracts that the administration has described as wasteful but in some cases have turned out to be worth far less than advertised, have already expired or have been for core services.
At the VA, that has included firing 2,400 so-called probationary workers who had been hired, promoted or transferred within the last couple of years. The department also announced earlier this week it was canceling more than 500 contracts, pared down from more than 800 contracts it originally was going to cancel after outcry that some of the contracts were crucial for veterans’ care and benefits. The department has not released a full list of the 585 contracts it is canceling.
In each announcement, the department has vowed that the cuts would not hurt veterans services. For example, in implementing the hiring freeze, the VA said it was exempting hundreds of thousands of health care jobs.
“We’re going to accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries,” Collins said in his social media video Wednesday about the upcoming 83,000 firings. “VA will also fulfill its duty to provide veterans, families, caregivers and survivors the health care and benefits they have earned. That’s a promise.”
But lawmakers have surfaced examples of the cuts affecting veterans directly.
For example, while the VA has insisted the fired probationary workers did not include Veterans Crisis Line responders, Senate Democrats have pointed to at least two fired employees who did critical support work for the suicide helpline even if they were not the ones answering the phones. The cuts have also halted research on areas such as cancer and suicide prevention.
And now, the planned reduction in force would go much further than the probationary firings. The memo from Syrek on Tuesday does not specify any exemptions to the potential tens of thousands of layoffs.
“This effort will require the entirety of VA staff and organizations to work together in a collaborative fashion, as well as to coordinate actions with DOGE and the administration as a whole, to achieve the desired results within the allotted time frame,” Syrek wrote.
The department envisions that “a portion” of any savings from the firings would be “reinvested in the veterans we serve,” Syrek added.
Veterans advocates have previously warned the Trump administration not to reverse the progress on PACT Act implementation as it pursues budget cuts.
“This is not just a budget decision — it’s a life-or-death issue for veterans suffering from toxic exposure-related illnesses,” Rosie Torres, co-founder of Burn Pits 360 and a leading proponent of the PACT Act, said in a statement last month. “The government made a promise. We honored our oath, now honor yours.”
As word of Syrek’s memo leaked, Democrats accused the Trump administration of undermining the PACT Act.
“Congress worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the PACT Act and equip VA with the tools and resources needed to serve more veterans than ever,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement Tuesday night. “This memo makes their goal crystal clear: They want to roll back the PACT Act by cutting 80,000 jobs — including 20,000 veterans — while starving VA’s ability to meet increased demand in order to justify privatizing VA.”
The estimate of 20,000 veterans being laid off appears based on the fact that one-quarter of VA employees are veterans.
Meanwhile, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., said he is working to get clarity from Collins on the memo.
“I have questions about the impact these reductions and discussions could have on the delivery of services, especially following the implementation of the PACT Act,” Bost said in a statement Wednesday. “And from my position as chairman, I will continue to ask questions and keep a close eye on how, or if, this plan evolves.”
— Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from VA Secretary Doug Collins addressing the planned firings.
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