Pierce County has state's most vets on disability. Would VA cuts delay benefits?

Yahoo

18-05-2025

An estimated 33,000 people or more in Pierce County received Veterans Affairs disability benefits by the end of fiscal year 2023, accounting for 21% of all people in Washington who received the compensation, federal government data shows.
The local number of beneficiaries is higher than any county in the state and larger than more populous counties elsewhere, including those that encompass Chicago and Miami, according to the most-recent figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
There are only 11 counties in the United States that have more beneficiaries, federal data shows, underscoring the significant military presence that exists in Pierce County. Joint Base Lewis-McChord is the region's largest job creator.
The VA took 131.5 days on average in April to process a disability claim from veterans seeking compensation for injuries incurred during service, slightly higher than its 125-day goal, according to the department.
Democratic lawmakers fear that the wait list could get longer with major staffing cuts planned for the VA amid the Trump administration's efforts to reorganize the department.
The administration, which fired 2,400 probationary employees in February, has plans to downsize the department by about 80,000 employees, or about 15% of the workforce, to reach 2019 staffing levels, according to news reports. The administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow its plan to proceed with mass layoffs at multiple federal agencies, including the VA, after a lower court temporarily blocked it earlier this month, multiple outlets reported.
Sen. Patty Murray's office released a report last month warning of exacerbated staff shortages and highlighting 'catastrophic' harms that it said mass layoffs would bring to veterans, including by decreasing health care and lengthening processing times for disability claims.
'Trump and Musk's senseless mass firings endanger the care and benefits veterans across Washington state, and right here in Pierce County, have earned and deserve,' Murray, D-WA, said in a statement in late April to The News Tribune. 'Trump's actions certainly won't make it easier for veterans to get their benefits. These firings could worsen staffing shortages at VA offices, which can mean fewer people to process veterans' claims, answer the phones, or help schedule doctors' appointments.'
The VA did not respond to a message seeking comment on the potential impacts of mass firings on VA services.
Earlier this month, the department applauded reforms in the VA enacted by President Donald Trump, including establishing a center for homeless veterans in Los Angeles, and criticized the department under its previous leadership.
'Under President Biden, VA failed to hold its employees properly accountable and actively fought congressional attempts to make it easier to fire poor-performing workers — even as health care wait times and benefits backlogs increased,' the department said in a May 9 news release.
In February, VA Secretary Doug Collins vowed in a video message that no veterans benefits would be cut and that the department was growing more efficient.
'In fact, we're actually giving and improving services in our Veterans Benefits Administration. They're actually clearing cases quicker,' Collins said. 'We're doing what we're supposed to be doing.'
Robert Sheetz, the veterans program manager for Pierce County, told The News Tribune that it wasn't immediately certain what effect, if any, staffing cuts would have on claim processing times or general services for veterans.
'To be honest with you, the answer is nobody really knows,' Sheetz said in an interview late last month, adding that a clearer picture probably wouldn't arrive until the summer.
Whether there will be those ramifications that worry Democrats depends on what positions are eliminated, according to Sheetz.
Even if it's not front-line or medical workers, losing people who work in the background, such as raters and evidence collectors, could prove costly, he said. The VA has employees whose jobs — integral to the claims process — are to gather all of a claimant's medical records and associated evidence for their disability and to assign a rating based on the severity of the disability.
'I think everybody's kind of cautiously optimistic,' he said. 'I think everybody's waiting for what that might look like because nobody can answer the question.'
On May 13, the county held a monthly workshop where veterans can receive assistance filing a new claim, adjusting an existing one and generally learning about the claims process, including for disability, pension or burial benefits.
Trey Reynolds, 59, who lives in Tacoma, was among those who attended the event. As a four-year Army veteran, Reynolds said he wasn't seeking disability compensation but instead looking to secure health benefits he only recently learned he could be eligible for.
In Washington, nearly 232,000 people were enrolled in the VA health care system in fiscal year 2023, according to the department.
'I'm thinking if they're cutting all these people,' Reynolds said, 'then that might take the process even longer.'
More information on Pierce County's veterans workshops, held the second Tuesday of every month, can be found at PierceCountyWA.gov/VSO.
On May 31, the Fife-based advocacy group, NineLine Veteran Services, is hosting a resource fair at the Tacoma Dome between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for veterans seeking health care, legal services, career development and more. Call 253-922-7225 for additional details.