VA secretary insists massive staff cuts needed to refocus department

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins on Wednesday confirmed plans to scale back his department’s workforce by roughly 80,000 staffers in coming months, saying the moves are needed to properly balance and reform the massive federal bureaucracy.

“If the answer was money and people, then we should have solved our problems at VA a long time ago,” Collins said in an interview with Military Times. “The problem is not resources at this point. The question is, are we utilizing that function the best way we possibly can?

“We’re looking at it from the perspective of, ‘How do we make the greatest employees in the world — which I think our VA employees are — better, more efficient?’ The government is not about employing people, it’s about serving people. That’s what we’re doing here.”

The comments came after the leak of an internal memo that outlined plans to scale back the department’s workforce to 2019 levels, before significant hiring efforts during President Joe Biden’s administration. Government Executive first reported on the document.

That plan would drop staffing levels to fewer than 400,000 workers from the current mark of approximately 480,000. About 2,500 employees have been dismissed from VA in recent weeks through probationary employee layoffs and the elimination of diversity and inclusion posts.

Collins described the staff dismissals difficult and concerning, but he emphasized that he feels the moves are necessary.

“There’s a game being played here, and it has been going on for years,” he said. “’Let’s give more money and stuff to the VA, and then let’s beat up on the VA when they’re not doing what we think they should be doing.’

“We’re not gonna do that anymore. We’re gonna work together with the funds and resources we have to make a better ‘product’ with some of the best employees around, who want to take care of veterans.”

The leaked memo instructs top-level staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.” It comes on the heels of a department review of spending, which has already led to the cancellation of more than 500 contracts, with a reported savings of around $900 million.

But veterans groups have expressed significant concerns about the long-term effects of those moves, and Democratic lawmakers have accused administration officials of endangering veterans with slipshod and erratic cuts.

On Wednesday, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Mark Takano, D-Calif., called the plans “a deliberate dismantling of VA’s workforce” and “an outright betrayal of veterans.” His Senate counterpart, Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, said Thursday that such cuts among VA staff would “eviscerate” department operations.

Republican leaders did not endorse or condemn the news. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., acknowledged the need for reform at VA but said, “current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner.” He promised continued oversight on the issue.

Collins insisted his staff is reviewing and driving the staff changes, and not just looking for ways to justify cost-cutting efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Last time I checked, I was one that raised my hand and swore in to be the secretary of VA,” he told Military Times.

“We’re looking at this in the best way we can, coming through my office, coming through this department to look at ourselves, not others. The president himself has made the declaration that we’re going to make government more efficient. We’re going to make it more streamlined, and it’s going to see fewer workers as we go through.”

The VA workforce grew by about 14% during Biden’s presidency, after growing by about 12% during President Donald Trump’s first term. Department medical centers and benefits offices have added more than 100,000 employees in the last decade.

But the department has also seen a steady increase in medical appointments and disability claims over that same period, especially with the expansion of benefits approved by Congress under the 2022 PACT Act.

Federal surveys have also shown a steady increase in veterans’ satisfaction with VA over that time period, too. About 85% of patients surveyed in fiscal 2017 said they trusted the department for their medical needs. By the end of Trump’s first term, that figure was 89%. Last year, it was 92%.