Trump admin plans to cut more than 70,000 jobs at Department of Veterans Affairs, memo says
The Trump administration is planning to cut tens of thousands of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN.
In a memo dated March 4 addressed to “under secretaries, assistant secretaries, and other key officials,” the Veterans Affairs department’s chief of staff Christopher Syrek said that the VA in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will move “aggressively” to restructure the VA across the entire department and “resize” the workforce.
As part of that, the department will aim to revert back to its 2019-era staffing levels of 399,957 employees, the memo said. That means more than 70,000 employees could be terminated as part of the restructuring, since the VA employed over 470,000 people as of October 2024, according to the department.
The memo, which was first reported by Government Executive, says administration and staff offices within the VA will need to conduct information gathering and report back to the Office of Personnel Management by April 14.
The VA grew significantly under the Biden administration, particularly to help implement the PACT Act that Biden signed into law in 2022 to help expand coverage and eligibility to millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and hazards like burn pits while serving.
The national president of the American Federation of Government Employees issued a warning Wednesday about the risks of the planned cuts at the VA.
“Until Elon Musk and Donald Trump came on the scene, America never turned its back on our veterans and their families,” Everett Kelley said in a statement. “Their reckless plan to wipe out the VA’s ability to deliver on America’s promise to veterans will backfire on millions of veterans and their families who risked their lives in service for our country.”
The VA’s plans to cut its workforce come as other federal agencies have fired scores of employees at the direction of OPM, which was until yesterday advising agencies including the Defense Department to fire probationary workers.
On Tuesday, OPM revised that guidance to say that terminations were now at the discretion of the agencies. But the Pentagon said last month that it plans toultimately fire five to eight percent of the military’s approximately 950,000 civilian employees, starting with an initial tranche of 5,400 probationary workers who don’t have “mission-critical” roles.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Rene Marsh contributed to this report.
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Trump administration plans to fire over 70K employees at Department of Veterans Affairs, memo shows
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to fire about 70,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a memo.
CHICAGO (WLS) — It appears President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to fire more than 70,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The department chief issued a memo saying he was working with Elon Musk’s “DOGE” to “aggressively” restructure the VA.
The memo made reference to August being the target for an agency-wide reorganization.
The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top-level officials at the agency Tuesday that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
The memo instructs top-level staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.” It also calls for agency officials to work with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency to “move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach” to the Trump administration’s goals.
“Things need to change,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins said in a video posted on social media Wednesday afternoon, adding that the layoffs would not mean cuts to veterans’ health care or benefits.
“This administration is finally going to give the veterans what they want,” Collins said. “President Trump has a mandate for generational change in Washington and that’s exactly what we’re going to deliver at the VA.”
SEE ALSO | Federal workers rally at Chicago VA hospital in protest of mass layoffs by Trump administration
“The fact of the matter is that veterans need more access to their benefits and their resources, not less,” U.S. Army Veteran Marcos Torres said.
Torres is a commander of a Chicago-area American Legion Post. He said the veterans he sees every day are fearful of the Trump administration’s latest directive to slash the federal workforce, this time targeting the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Taking a buzz saw to critical programs that impact people’s lives is unconscionable,” said Ald. Matt Martin of the 47th Ward. “You can’t defend decisions like that.”
Martin said just on Wednesday his office was informed that the VA will no longer have the capacity to staff the Veterans Affairs Office at their ward office. He said once or twice a month, several VA employees would come to the 47th Ward and other wards across the city and connect veterans with a vast array of resources.
“There are going to be people who aren’t getting access to health care that they need, that don’t have a roof over their heads because of the Trump administration’s decision, there are others who are going to have to pay a lot more than they otherwise would,” Martin said.
Meanwhile, Torres said stripping down Veterans Affairs is un-American, and the government is not delivering on the back end of a contract that U.S. servicemen and women sign when they serve our country.
“Nobody wants to cut veteran benefits. That sounds real ugly, right?” Torres said. “That doesn’t sound good, but what you can do is just make it so incredibly difficult for the veteran to access their benefits and get their benefits that people stop trying.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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