VA walks back plans for mass layoffs but will still lose tens of thousands of jobs

CNN

2 days ago

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday it is walking back plans for mass layoffs at the agency but says it will still shed tens of thousands of jobs by the end of fiscal year 2025.
VA Secretary Doug Collins previously said the agency had the goal of laying off roughly 80,000 employees from a total staff of about 470,000 that was in place this summer, which would have amounted to about 15% of its workforce.
The VA is scrapping those plans for now, but it is on pace to reduce the total number of staffers by nearly 30,000, 'through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition,' the agency said in a news release, adding that those cuts will eliminate 'the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force.'
Some employees have already departed through those channels. The VA says it had roughly 484,000 total employees on January 1 and 467,000 employees as of June 1 – a reduction of nearly 17,000 workers.
It says between now and September 30, 'the department expects nearly 12,000 additional VA employees to exit through normal attrition, voluntary early retirement authority, or the deferred resignation program.'
Sources at the agency and on Capitol Hill previously told CNN the first significant round of layoffs was planned to begin this month, with a second round planned to begin in September. On Monday, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told CNN there is no longer a target of 80,000 cuts.
As for next year, Kasperowicz said, 'VA is not planning to make any other major changes to staffing levels beyond those outlined in the release.'
The release insists the reductions 'do not impact Veteran care or benefits.' 'All mission-critical positions are exempt' from the deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements, the agency said.
CNN has previously reported that some staff who handle administration, billing, and running facilities have already left, leaving doctors and nurses to do those jobs on top of practicing medicine, contributing to sagging morale at some VA facilities, a problem that spans multiple administrations.
'A department-wide RIF is off the table, but that doesn't mean we're done improving VA. Our review has resulted in a host of new ideas for better serving Veterans that we will continue to pursue,' Collins said in the statement.
A reduction of 30,000 employees constitutes about 6.2% of the VA's workforce, based on 484,000 total VA employees as of January 1, 2025.
Some of the harshest Democratic critics in Congress of the previously planned VA layoffs responded to the latest announcement with scorn.
'This announcement makes clear VA is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE's slash and trash policies,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement. 'Make no mistake, this is still a reduction in force—except VA has been able to do it without accountability and transparency to veterans and Congress.'
House Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member Mark Takano warned that the new staffing reduction plan would still have major impacts. 'The loss of 30,000 VA employees will be catastrophic, and veterans will suffer,' he said in a statement. 'I hope the Secretary is ready to respond to this inevitable disaster.'
Across the aisle, one prominent Senate Republican praised Collins' announcement Monday.
Sen. Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he had spoken to Collins on Monday morning. Moran said he appreciated the secretary's efforts 'to make certain veterans are at the center of any changes at the VA and ensure the department is focused on providing high-quality health care and benefits to those who have served and their families. This decision provides greater certainty to VA employees and the veterans they serve.'