Approximately 1 month after taking office as the 12th Secretary of Veterans Affairs following his nomination by President Donald J. Trump, Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins issued a statement that his agency was conducting a “thorough and thoughtful” department-wide review to reduce about 80,000 jobs from its workforce.1
In a message issued on YouTube and then later an interview with PBS' News Hour, Collins said that the goal is to reduce the staff to 398,000 employees from the agency’s current level of approximately 470,000 employees, which represents nearly a 15% decrease.
“These and other recent personnel decisions are extraordinarily difficult, but VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors as possible,” Collins said in a statement issued in late February, that announced the dismissal of more than 1400 employees in what the statement terms “non-mission critical positions.”1 “These moves will not hurt VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries. In fact, veterans are going to notice a change for the better. In the coming weeks and months, VA will be announcing plans to put these resources to work helping the department fulfill its core mission: providing the best possible care and benefits to veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.”
That statement defined mission-critical positions as “Veterans Crisis Line responders, among other roles.” VA positions dubbed “non-mission critical” in the press release included “DEI-related positions, among other roles.”
The budget issue came up during Collins’ confirmation before the Senate, which was held in early February. At that confirmation, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) asked Collins, “I know it’s a mandate from President Trump to cut the size of the government. Can you assure that you will always speak up on behalf of veterans, not just do the bidding of someone who maybe somewhere else sees your numbers and starts to slash and burn?” Collins responded, “That’s an easy one, because what I was told by the president is to take care of our veterans. We’re going to take care of our veterans. And I said earlier in this hearing that we’re not going to sacrifice the veterans’ benefits to do a budget.”
Reference
- Veterans Affairs. VA dismisses more than 1,400 probationary employees [press release]. February 24, 2025. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-dismisses-more-than-1400-probationary-employees
This monthly feature is a compilation of all the top news from the Veterans Affairs media relations office.