The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on Wednesday that it plans to cut roughly 72,000 employees from its rolls, or about 15 percent of its workforce.
In a Wednesday afternoon video message, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the cuts are coming in response to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order. The order aims to make deep cuts to the Federal government civilian workforce via “reductions in force” – more commonly known as layoffs.
Collins said the cuts will not affect health care or benefits for veterans and their beneficiaries.
“Our goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019 end-strength numbers – roughly 398,000 employees – from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees,” Collins said, adding, “That’s a 15 percent decrease.”
Collins said the cuts will be part of a department-wide review of the VA “based on the input from career VA employees, senior executives, as well as the top VA leaders.”
While the VA conducts its review, the secretary said the agency will continue to hire for “more than 300,000 mission-critical positions” to ensure health care and benefits for VA beneficiaries are not impacted.
“We regret anyone who loses their job, and it’s extraordinarily difficult for me especially as a VA leader and your secretary to make these types of decisions,” Collins said. “But the Federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.”
“We’ll be making major changes, so get used to it,” he added.
The announcement comes after the VA announced last month that it had dismissed more than 1,000 employees, including some probationary employees. The VA said that round of layoffs will save the department more than $98 million per year.
