“I'm here to tell you the truth,” said VA secretary Doug Collins. “We're not cutting healthcare, we're not cutting benefits,” VA employees and elected officials are fired by key staff, including healthcare workers assigned to the veteran crisis. He says he was. Staff, according to the 2024 inspector's report.
WASHINGTON – The Veterans Affairs Bureau has scrambled to revive fired health workers as new hires turn to other jobs from fears of going pure in the future.
More than 1,000 VA employees have been fired amid a fundamental layoff of federal workers across the government, the agency announced last week. Those fired included probation employees. This is a job for less than two years depending on your position.
The firing is part of an effort by President Donald Trump and his top advisor, large-scale technology CEO Elon Musk, to fundamentally reduce the size of the federal workforce. The sudden firing infuriated government and raging critics who say local workers were culled without warning, including nuclear safety, forest fire prevention and avian flu reactions.
This week, Democrats said at least two workers out of the approximately 12 people fired from the veteran crisis have come back after lawmakers intervened.
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VA secretary Doug Collins took him to social media to dispel what he called “whopper” the reduction in critical services.
“I'm here to tell you the truth,” he said. “We're not cutting healthcare, we're not cutting profits.”
“Veteran care, benefits and beneficiaries will not be affected by the VA HR move, which will allow us to redirect $98 million per year to healthcare, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries. VA leaders can request that employees be exempt from “probation removal,” and “mandatory positions over 300,000” will be exempt from the Trump administration, which hires the freeze, the spokesman said. .
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“Unnecessary stress”
But democratic lawmakers and VA health workers say reductions and morale impacts will affect VA care.
D-Conn. Sen. Richard Blumental said the shootings put veterans' health at risk and threaten them to delay benefits.
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“It's confusing because it affects a variety of services, including suicide prevention, mammograms, cardiology and benefits under the agreement,” said Blumental, the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Masu. “We are putting pressure on the VA's secretary to take some action to cancel the layoffs.”
One VA Healthcare employee working with high-risk veterans said some probation employees on the team were fired before they could revive within a week. “The emotional pain this poses to veterans working to save lives is horrible,” an employee who asked to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation told USA Today.
The veterans of care for this worker are afraid they will lose their services, they said. “What we're doing is creating unnecessary stress for a high-risk population.” The employee said resignation among VA colleagues was “not unusual.”
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Employees said they received an email to bring all staff back to the office as part of the Trump administration's instructions to end telework for all federal employees.
But the providers forced them to long-time work from home to become accustomed to the chaotic and crowded spaces, taking away privacy veterans, workers said.
Employees who fail to comply are threatened with severe punishments, including termination, they said. VA workers are also warned that they will suffer “bad effects” from trying to disguise their diversity programs or attempting to use DEI-related languages after Trump's DEI initiative blanket ban.
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Recent VA employment turned away and cancelled the offer
The Trump administration has shown that federal employment related to national security and veteran issues is not subject to the shootings caused by Musk's government efficiency. In some cases, sweeping out layoffs for federal workers with national security-related roles, like the national nuclear security agency, was cancelled a few days after hitting their inbox.
Musk appeared on stage at a conservative political action committee meeting outside of Washington, D.C., and on Thursday oversaw the chainsaw to represent his intention to clear what is described as waste from the federal government.
Collins suggests the division could go further. “We're going to look for all the efficiency,” he told News Nation in an interview Friday. “We're just starting out.”
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“Strict” VA Medical Staff Shortage
Congressional aides familiar with the issue spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue in more detail, and their offices withdrew the offer amid the federal employment freeze. He said he was in contact with employees.
Many have turned their backs from the VA towards high-paid private sector jobs.
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Government Watchdogs have documented extremely low staffing levels at VA healthcare facilities for at least 10 years. Of the 139 veteran health facilities surveyed last year, only two people were “severe labor shortages,” according to an inspector's general report. Medical personnel and nurses have been in a “severe shortage” since 2014, the report says.
“If it's treated like this, no one wants to work in Virginia,” said Jake Panel, the business president of the National Federation, representing more than 110,000 people.
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Clinical staff were intended to be exempt from the cut, but the panel said people in a position to provide important support to veteran healthcare providers, such as administrative assistants and program analysts, have ended. .
“We can't provide veteran care without providing tools, support or staffing to our provider,” he said.
Suicide preventive worker fired
One frontal example is the Veterans Crisis Line, a 24-hour support hotline for veterans and their families. According to the website, Crisis Line maintains 1,100 responders located across three call centres.
Collins also reported that it was “wrong” that crisis line employees were fired, and a VA spokesman said “veteran crisis responders have not been fired.”
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But Sen. Tammy Duckworth, another Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, said some people were caught up in the purge. A veteran crisis employee who speaks on condition of anonymity has also confirmed that some of his colleagues have returned since being fired.
“They were fired and the outcome was really disastrous,” Blumenthal said. Veterans are currently facing delays in speaking with counselors who answer the call for the crisis, he said.
Duckworth said her staff spoke personally with employees in the crisis who were fired – about 12 people, according to her office.
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After Duckworth asked on their behalf, it was said that at least two of those workers were revived, but they had not yet regained access to the system on Wednesday morning, she said. I told reporters.
“Why have these jobs even been blackmailed in the first place? These are jobs that serve our veterans, and some of them are in crisis,” Duckworth said.
Veterans' suicide rates remain far higher than the American population. After a decline in 2020, they began to climb again in recent years, with 6,407 veteran suicides in 2022.
Contribution: Tom Vanden Brook
