(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to lay off as many as 80,000 workers in the coming weeks in the latest phase of the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal workforce, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC News.
VA Secretary Doug Collins later confirmed the planned cuts in a video posted to X, saying the agency is aiming for a 15% workforce cut that could begin in the coming months.
Collins said the VA will continue to hire for open “mission critical” positions while the agency downsizes in other areas, so that “health care and benefits for VA beneficiaries are not impacted.”
“We regret anyone who loses their job, and it’s extraordinarily difficult for me as a VA leader, and your secretary, to make these types of decisions. But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people,” Collins said.
Top Republicans and Democrats raised concerns with the plans and how they might be implemented.
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said on X that that “the Department of Veterans Affairs is in need of reform but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner.”
“I expect the VA to work with Congress to right size the VA workforce and allow us to legislate necessary changes,” he added.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the panel, criticized the announcement, saying the “plan prioritizes private sector profits over veterans’ care, balancing the budget on the backs of those who served.”
In a March 4 memo to senior agency leaders, chief of staff Christopher Syrek said the VA’s “initial objective is to return to our 2019-end strength numbers of 399,957 employees” as part of the Department of Government Efficiency-led wave of large-scale firings and reorganization of agencies.
“VA, in partnership with our DOGE leads, will move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach to identify and eliminate waste, reduce management and bureaucracy, reduce footprint, and increase workplace efficiency,” Syrek said in the memo obtained by ABC News.
Already, the VA has said it has dismissed 2,400 probationary workers — although some were subsequently hired back to the agency, workers and lawmakers told ABC News.
Agencies are required to submit the first piece of their reorganization plans — with proposals for potential layoffs — to the Office of Personnel Management by March 13.
The VA did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Even as the VA prepares to trim its workforce, the agency has faced setbacks in other cost-cutting efforts.
On Wednesday, Collins announced that the agency had saved $900 million by canceling more than 500 “non mission critical and duplicative” contracts, after initially claiming the agency had identified $2 billion in contracts for potential savings.
The agency has faced internal resistance to the contract cuts — some of which directly support medical care and facilities — and has reversed the cancellation of many of the initial batch of more than 800 originally identified for cuts.
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