{"id":38936,"date":"2025-02-24T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38936"},"modified":"2025-02-24T22:03:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T04:03:34","slug":"va-axes-another-1400-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38936","title":{"rendered":"VA axes another 1,400 employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday fired another 1,400 employees amid outcry over a lack of transparency from the agency after 1,000 workers were axed earlier this month.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The VA said the individuals dismissed were \u201cnon-mission critical\u201d probationary employees who have served less than two years, according to a department statement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The agency defined the non-mission critical positions as those that were diversity, inclusion and equity-related, \u201camong other roles.\u201d It also claimed their dismissals will save the VA more than $83 million per year \u2014 to be redirected back toward health care, benefits and services for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cThese and other recent personnel decisions are extraordinarily difficult, but VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors as possible,\u201d VA Secretary&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/doug-collins\/\"><u>Doug Collins\u2002<\/u><\/a>said in the statement. \u201cThese moves will not hurt VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries. In fact, Veterans are going to notice a change for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The move follows the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/5146387-veteran-affairs-cuts-1000-workers\/\"><u>Feb. 13 firings<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of 1,000 probationary VA employees, a decision that caused outrage and condemnation among Democrat lawmakers and veterans groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/richard-blumenthal\/\"><u>Richard Blumenthal\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Conn.) called the latest firings an \u201cillegal termination\u201d that comes at a time of critical VA staffing shortages and increased demand for its services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cDoug Collins continues to put the interests of veterans last with additional indiscriminate firings of VA employees,\u201d Blumenthal said in a statement. \u201cWe know these terminations are already impairing the Department\u2019s ability to deliver timely and quality care and benefits to veterans, especially as it works to serve more veterans than ever before.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He adds: \u201cThese men and women were arbitrarily fired because Doug Collins views them as nothing more than a statistic for his press release,\u201d warning it will erode trust in VA and damage the agency\u2019s ability to recruit and retain talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The terminations \u2014 led by the Department of Government Efficiency and part of the Trump administration\u2019s bid to cull the 2.4 million-person civil servant workforce \u2014 have created confusion within the VA, which employs nearly 480,000 people and provides lifelong care and benefits for 9 million veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Democrat lawmakers last week said they were frustrated they have not been given any response to multiple inquiries about which roles were cut and how staffing changes have affected VA offices or veterans\u2019 benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cThere is an almost total lack of transparency and communication here,\u201d Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told reporters in a call Thursday. \u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s in charge of these firings. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s the Department of Government Efficiency, or the White House, or who.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The VA, meanwhile, on Monday said there were still nearly 40,000 probationary employees across the department, with the majority exempt from the dismissals because they serve in mission-critical positions \u2014 primarily those supporting benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The agency also said it \u201ccontinues to hire for more than&nbsp;300,000 mission-critical positions\u201d exempt from the government-wide hiring freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/5162213-va-axes-another-1400-employees\/\">thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday fired another 1,400 employees amid outcry over a lack of transparency from the agency after 1,000 workers were axed earlier this month.&nbsp; The VA said the individuals dismissed were \u201cnon-mission critical\u201d probationary employees who have served less than two years, according to a department statement.&nbsp; The agency defined [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[32453,1577],"class_list":["post-38936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-ax","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38938,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38936\/revisions\/38938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}