{"id":79742,"date":"2025-03-06T16:14:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/03\/06\/va-secretary-insists-massive-staff-cuts-needed-to-refocus-department\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:34:47","slug":"va-secretary-insists-massive-staff-cuts-needed-to-refocus-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2025\/03\/06\/va-secretary-insists-massive-staff-cuts-needed-to-refocus-department\/","title":{"rendered":"VA secretary insists massive staff cuts needed to refocus department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2025\/02\/24\/va-secretary-emphasizes-reforms-accountability-for-federal-workforce\/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins<\/a> on Wednesday confirmed plans to scale back his department\u2019s workforce by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2025\/03\/05\/trump-administration-plans-to-cut-80000-va-employees-memo-says\/\" target=\"_blank\"> roughly 80,000 staffers<\/a> in coming months, saying the moves are needed to properly balance and reform the massive federal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf the answer was money and people, then we should have solved our problems at VA a long time ago,\u201d Collins said in an interview with Military Times. \u201cThe problem is not resources at this point. The question is, are we utilizing that function the best way we possibly can?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it from the perspective of, \u2018How do we make the greatest employees in the world \u2014 which I think our VA employees are \u2014 better, more efficient?\u2019 The government is not about employing people, it\u2019s about serving people. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The comments came after the leak of an internal memo that outlined plans to scale back the department\u2019s workforce to 2019 levels, before significant hiring efforts during President Joe Biden\u2019s administration. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govexec.com\/workforce\/2025\/03\/va-plans-lay-many-83000-employees-year\/403477\/?oref=ge-homepage-river\" target=\"_blank\">Government Executive<\/a> first reported on the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2025\/03\/05\/trump-administration-plans-to-cut-80000-va-employees-memo-says\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Trump_Veterans_Affairs_Nurses_00213.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 VA employees, memo says<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">An internal memo instructs top-level Veterans Affairs staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That plan would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2025\/02\/25\/va-fires-1400-more-staffers-in-second-round-of-workforce-reductions\/\" target=\"_blank\">drop staffing levels<\/a> to fewer than 400,000 workers from the current mark of approximately 480,000. About 2,500 employees have been dismissed from VA in recent weeks through probationary employee layoffs and the elimination of diversity and inclusion posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collins described the staff dismissals difficult and concerning, but he emphasized that he feels the moves are necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a game being played here, and it has been going on for years,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2019Let\u2019s give more money and stuff to the VA, and then let\u2019s beat up on the VA when they\u2019re not doing what we think they should be doing.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not gonna do that anymore. We\u2019re gonna work together with the funds and resources we have to make a better \u2018product\u2019 with some of the best employees around, who want to take care of veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The leaked memo instructs top-level staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August to \u201cresize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.\u201d It comes on the heels of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2025\/03\/03\/after-review-va-scales-back-plans-for-contract-cancellations\/\" target=\"_blank\">department review of spending<\/a>, which has already led to the cancellation of more than 500 contracts, with a reported savings of around $900 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But veterans groups have expressed significant concerns about the long-term effects of those moves, and Democratic lawmakers have accused administration officials of endangering veterans with slipshod and erratic cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member Mark Takano, D-Calif., called the plans \u201ca deliberate dismantling of VA\u2019s workforce\u201d and \u201can outright betrayal of veterans.\u201d His Senate counterpart, Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, said Thursday that such cuts among VA staff would \u201ceviscerate\u201d department operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republican leaders did not endorse or condemn the news. Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., acknowledged the need for reform at VA but said, \u201ccurrent efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner.\u201d He promised continued oversight on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collins insisted his staff is reviewing and driving the staff changes, and not just looking for ways to justify cost-cutting efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLast time I checked, I was one that raised my hand and swore in to be the secretary of VA,\u201d he told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re looking at this in the best way we can, coming through my office, coming through this department to look at ourselves, not others. The president himself has made the declaration that we\u2019re going to make government more efficient. We\u2019re going to make it more streamlined, and it\u2019s going to see fewer workers as we go through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The VA workforce grew by about 14% during Biden\u2019s presidency, after growing by about 12% during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term. Department medical centers and benefits offices have added more than 100,000 employees in the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the department has also seen a steady <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/01\/26\/enrollments-in-va-medical-care-spiked-after-pact-act-passage-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\">increase in medical appointments and disability claims<\/a> over that same period, especially with the expansion of benefits approved by Congress under the 2022 PACT Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal surveys have also shown a steady increase in veterans\u2019 satisfaction with VA over that time period, too. About 85% of patients surveyed in fiscal 2017 said they trusted the department for their medical needs. By the end of Trump\u2019s first term, that figure was 89%. Last year, it was 92%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary Doug Collins confirmed leaders are looking at trimming 80,000 workers to slim down the growing VA bureaucracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,24,16,26,65,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3328],"class_list":["post-79742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"7VJYYTT2TVE6RJEHD3O7PALMOM","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2025\/03\/06\/va-secretary-insists-massive-staff-cuts-needed-to-refocus-department\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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