Leaked Memo Reveals That 80,000 Jobs Could Be Cut
The American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest union representing federal workers, protests against the Trump Administration’s recent job cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), including the dismissal of 1,000 probationary workers at the VA. Photo from the American Federation of Government Employees.
WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump began his second term with a flurry of executive orders that have resulted in the firing of thousands of employees, including many at VA, with the promise of deeper cuts to come.
Now, a leaked memo has revealed that the department is being directed to return to 2019 staffing numbers—an effective cut of 80,000 employees.
Despite assurances that VA care and benefits would be unaffected, there have been reports of facilities losing essential staff. This has triggered protests from veterans, Democratic lawmakers and union leaders and has already led to court challenges.
At the beginning of March, a memo was leaked from VA Chief of Staff Christopher Cyrek revealing plans to cut the VA workforce by 80,000. It directed leaders to spend the summer reviewing the agency’s mission and structure before executing a “VA-wide reduction in force in August.”
“President Trump has a mandate for generational change in Washington,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a video address following the memo’s release. He promised veterans that the cuts—a 15% decrease in staffing—will be made with careful consideration and will have no impact on healthcare or benefits.
Collins’ promises rang hollow for Democrats, who said that such a cut would be a betrayal of veterans.
“Gutting VA’s staffing to pre-PACT Act levels will cripple the very system that millions of veterans rely on,” declared Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), ranking member of the House VA Committee. “These cuts won’t just impact those seeking healthcare. They will create chaos across every aspect of VA.”
The revelation of these proposed staffing cuts came after a chaotic two months for employees across the federal government, including VA. In January, the president implemented a governmentwide hiring freeze. This immediately caused an outcry from veterans’ advocates, who argued that VA is already struggling to fill openings and that a hiring freeze would only create more openings as current employees retired. Shortly after, VA released a list of 300,000 healthcare positions exempt from the freeze—nearly three-quarters of the department’s total workforce.
The following week, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released what has become known as the “Fork in the Road” offer. It gave federal employees the opportunity to take part in a deferred-resignation program whereby they could resign and leave their position but still receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30. Despite warnings from union leaders and Democrats that there was no approved funding for the resignations and it was very possible the agreements would not be honored, thousands of workers accepted.
On Feb. 6, then-Acting VA Secretary Todd Hunter sent an email to staff saying VA would honor the offer for employees who submitted a resignation prior to that day. He said that those who took the offer would not be subject to reductions in force or premature separations, suggesting those could be expected soon. Hunter warned, however, that the offer was subject to “exceptions agencies may enact to keep onboard those who work in healthcare, law enforcement, public safety, or other limited categories of essential services.”
Those exceptions were released a few days later—a list of 130 ineligible occupations, ranging from doctors and nurses to pest control and food service employees. The White House has said that 75,000 federal workers accepted the buyout prior to the offer’s closure on Feb. 12. It’s unknown how many VA workers took the offer or how many now find that offer to be invalid, since their position has been listed as ineligible.
The administration also has targeted probationary employees for firing, as those workers do not benefit from full union protections. On Feb. 13, VA announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 probationary employees.
“The personnel moves will save the department more than $98 million per year, and VA will redirect all of those resources back toward healthcare, benefits, and services for VA beneficiaries,” VA officials stated in a press release. Officials also assured veterans that none of the dismissed employees were from “mission-critical positions.”
That assurance has been called into question as legislators immediately started hearing from VA healthcare workers who had been dismissed, as well as reports of approximately a dozen hotline workers at the Veterans Crisis Line being fired.
According to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), VA has promised to rehire the crisis line employees, but their dismissals reveal deep flaws in the sweeping layoffs.
“After pushing on their behalf, I’m relieved [these employees] are set to be rehired. Many were veterans themselves,” she said in a social media post. “But let’s be clear. These jobs and so many others should never have been at risk in the first place.”
At least two of those hotline employees had been with the VA for many years. Their inclusion in the firings highlighted the fact that not all probationary employees are new to the department. Some might have been recently promoted or moved laterally, thereby resetting their probationary status.
Also, according to Duckworth, employees who use their “veterans’ preference,” where veterans are given preference over non-veterans during the application process, are sometimes coded as probationary by OPM.
On Feb. 14, Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs Committee sent an email to Collins, requesting a full list of VA employees who had been terminated, including their veteran status, disability status and a legal justification for dismissal.
Multiple class action lawsuits are also now underway claiming the mass firings were illegal and that workers should be rehired. One target of the lawsuits is language found in many probationary employees’ termination emails citing poor performance despite a history of excellent performance reviews and clear evidence that the firings came as a sweeping mandate from OPM.
One complaint representing employees from nine different federal agencies was brought before the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) last month. The OSC is the federal agency that safeguards the federal employee merit system, as well as protecting whistleblowers from retaliation.
The OSC itself has not been exempt from the turmoil of recent months, however. On Feb. 7, the Trump administration fired OSC head Hampton Dellinger. A few days later, Trump named Collins to the position of interim OSC chief.
A federal judge reinstated Dellinger to his post only a few days later. The administration petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling. On Feb. 21, a divided high court put off ruling on the Trump administration’s request to allow the president to remove the leader of an independent government watchdog agency until at least after a lower-court hearing next week, but the court has so far declined to hear the case.
This wave of freezes and firings resulted in a rally in front of VA headquarters on Feb. 13 with lawmakers and union leaders calling for VA employees to stand strong.
“This flurry of executive orders, whether it’s eliminating telework, or enacting hiring freezes or potentially replacing us at a 1-to-4 ratio, is ultimately forcing employee reduction and to turn more VA care over to the private sector with the result of diminishing the quality of care that we internally can provide,” declared Mary Jean Burke, executive vice president of the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE’s) National VA Council. “Even before these new assaults, budget uncertainty had hiring already frozen. Now they want to pile reductions on top of vacancies that we already have.”
According to the leaked memo, VA offices are expected to submit a review of their staffing and organizations to OMB by mid-April, with a department-wide review conducted by early May, and a full reorganization plan ready to publish in June.
