Jul 07, 2025
WASHINGTON – I am pleased to hear today’s announcement that through early retirements, deferred resignations, the federal hiring freeze and normal attrition, the Department of Veterans Affairs is on track to reduce its staff by only some 30,000 employees by the end of the fiscal year 2025, thus eliminating the requirement of a large-scale reduction-in-force (RIF). This is a sigh of relief for the veterans who depend on the timely delivery of care and benefits, and a far cry from estimates that circulated in March.
While the VFW supports fiscal responsibility in the VA, such a large-scale RIF would most certainly have been devastating to all veterans, not just those the VA employs. Thankfully, President Trump and VA leadership heard our voice and approached this task with the care and precision it demanded.
I applaud Secretary Collins for “working with a scalpel” to achieve the President’s objective to trim the workforce while respecting the needs of veterans and those who work at VA every day.