February 19, 2025

Duckworth Joins Blumenthal, Senators in Demanding VA Secretary Collins Put Veterans First and Reverse Mass Terminations of VA Employees

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC)—joined U.S. Senator and SVAC Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and a group of 34 Democratic Senators calling on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated last week who serve Veterans and their families nationwide, including critical employees addressing Veteran suicide working at the Veterans Crisis Line. The Trump Administration’s mass terminations of VA employees, which included a substantive number of Veterans and military spouses, comes at a time when VA faces critical staffing shortages and increased demand for its services, such as urgently needed mental health care to reduce the Veteran suicide rate. In addition, many of these terminated employees had exemplary performance records and multiple years of work experience in government service.

“Last week, we were outraged by the Administration’s abrupt and indiscriminate termination of tens of thousands of workers across almost every government agency, including more than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees,” wrote the Senators in a letter to VA Secretary Collins. “We were further disturbed by the manner in which you publicly celebrated this reprehensible announcement – a clear departure from the assurances provided throughout your confirmation process to never ‘balance budgets on the back of veterans' benefits’ and to always ‘put the veteran first.’ Not only will this latest action put veterans’ care and benefits at risk, but it further confuses, demoralizes, and threatens a VA workforce we need to fulfill our nation’s sacred promise to our veterans and their families who have already sacrificed so much.”

The Senators directly refuted VA Secretary Collins’ vague assurances that these terminations “will not negatively impact VA health care, benefits, or beneficiaries,” by detailing the ways the Trump Administration directives’ to gut VA’s workforce are already negatively impacting Veterans:

  • Openings for new clinics have been delayed because VA cannot hire the necessary staff to open their doors, including a VA clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia;
  • Service lines at VA hospitals and clinics have been halted;
  • Beds and operating rooms at VA facilities have been suspended;
  • Support lines for caregivers have been reduced;
  • Veterans Crisis Line employees have been fired, and suicide prevention training sessions have been postponed or canceled; and
  • Transportation options for disabled Veterans, which help ensure Veterans can attend regular health care appointments, have been cut back because volunteer drivers are now unable to get credentialed.

In addition to emphasizing the harmful impact on Veterans, the Senators underscored how these terminations are a massive waste of taxpayer dollars that have already been spent recruiting, vetting and training these VA employees: “Because probationary employees tend to be younger, many of them represented the next generation of VA employees – talented men and women who chose a long-term career path of serving veterans. VA already invested in recruiting and training these individuals because veterans deserve the very best staff possible.”

The Senators continued, “The list of real-life negative impacts of this Administration’s directives is expansive and growing every day. Rather than putting the interests of veterans first, you made your priorities abundantly clear in your statement applauding the mass firings: ‘At VA, we are focused on saving money.’ It’s clear from the slashing of services and benefits this priority is coming directly at the expense of veterans.”

The Senators concluded by calling on Collins to put Veterans first and rescind the blanket layoffs of the more than 1,000 VA employees: “With the best interests of veterans in mind, and to ensure VA is capable of carrying out its sacred obligation of behalf of veterans, we urge you to immediately reinstate all of the employees dismissed in the latest indiscriminate terminations and commit to VA employees and veterans that no additional widespread terminations will occur without advanced notification to Congress, a detailed justification, coordination with service-level leadership, and an appropriate assessment of potential impacts on veterans’ health care and benefits. Congress remains ready to collaborate with you, if you are willing to come to the table and put the needs of our veterans above all else.”

In addition to Duckworth and Blumenthal, the letter was co-signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Timothy Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacklyn Rosen (D-NV), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The full text of the letter is available on the Senator’s website and below:

Dear Secretary Collins:  

            Last week, we were outraged by the Administration’s abrupt and indiscriminate termination of tens of thousands of workers across almost every government agency, including more than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees. We were further disturbed by the manner in which you publicly celebrated this reprehensible announcement – a clear departure from the assurances provided throughout your confirmation process to never “balance budgets on the back of veterans' benefits” and to always “put the veteran first.” Not only will this latest action put veterans’ care and benefits at risk, but it further confuses, demoralizes, and threatens a VA workforce we need to fulfill our nation’s sacred promise to our veterans and their families who have already sacrificed so much.

The more than 1,000 VA employees whose lives and careers you have upended included a substantial number of veterans and military spouses. Many had exemplary performance records. Because probationary employees tend to be younger, many of them represented the next generation of VA employees – talented men and women who chose a long-term career path of serving veterans. VA already invested in recruiting and training these individuals because veterans deserve the very best staff possible. And they all deserved better than to be casually discarded by an Administration that places a greater priority on political loyalty than fitness to serve.

You have repeatedly claimed these massive, arbitrary staff terminations – done without advance consultation with service-level leadership or advisement from experienced senior leaders trained to manage VA’s health care, benefits, and memorial workforce –– “will not negatively impact VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries.” However, we have heard directly from VA employees and veterans across the country that this is absolutely not the case. In fact, we have been made aware of numerous detrimental developments as a direct result of the actions of this Administration. Openings for new clinics have been delayed because VA cannot hire the necessary staff to open their doors. Service lines at VA hospitals and clinics have been halted. Beds and operating rooms at VA facilities have been suspended. Support lines for caregivers have been reduced. Veterans Crisis Line employees have been fired, and suicide prevention training sessions have been postponed or canceled. And transportation options for disabled veterans, which help ensure veterans can attend regular health care appointments, have been cut back because volunteer drivers are now unable to get credentialed.

The list of real-life negative impacts of this Administration’s directives is expansive and growing every day. Rather than putting the interests of veterans first, you made your priorities abundantly clear in your statement applauding the mass firings: “At VA, we are focused on saving money.” It’s clear from the slashing of services and benefits this priority is coming directly at the expense of veterans.

With the best interests of veterans in mind, and to ensure VA is capable of carrying out its sacred obligation of behalf of veterans, we urge you to immediately reinstate all of the employees dismissed in the latest indiscriminate terminations and commit to VA employees and veterans that no additional widespread terminations will occur without advanced notification to Congress, a detailed justification, coordination with service-level leadership, and an appropriate assessment of potential impacts on veterans’ health care and benefits. Congress remains ready to collaborate with you, if you are willing to come to the table and put the needs of our veterans above all else.

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