Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., held a press conference outside the Department of Veterans Affairs Feb. 13 to shine a spotlight on veterans suffering from President Trump’s policies, including attack on VA employees, one fourth of whom are veterans.
The press conference took place just hours before the VA dismissed over 1,000 probationary employees, a slap in the face to the veterans they serve. VA Secretary Doug Collins somehow believes firing the employees hired to take care of veterans is “the right call to better support the veterans.”
Blumenthal was joined by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a group of Senate and House colleagues, veterans, labor unions, and advocates for veterans.
“Elon Musk, nine million veterans are watching you. Nine million veterans are watching you give them the middle finger, and we’re not gonna stand for it,” he told the crowd. “We’re gonna fight Elon Musk’s plan to slash and trash the VA in the biggest power grab and heist of valuable information and money in our nation’s history.”
The senator took issue with Trump’s recent announcement allowing only one employee to be hired for every four that departs, the continued VA hiring freeze, and the deferred resignation program that forces employees to choose between giving up their devotion to serving veterans or blind allegiance to Trump.
AFGE President Everett Kelley said President Trump, the DOGE, and the VA leadership have launched an all-out attack on the federal workforce the like of which we’ve never seen before.
“And in the case of the VA, too many Republicans and their billionaire buddies want to turn the VA into nothing but an insurance company,” he said. “They would love nothing better than to sink their claws into the VA’s $300 billion budget and funnel that money to corporate health care. To private equity. To put private profit above the health and well-being of veterans. To those who’ve worn the uniform and served this country. And I think it’s a disgrace.”
Kelley pointed out that Stanford University found that veterans who need emergency care are much more likely to survive when they get care at the VA compared to private care. The VA’s integrated care is also cheaper for the taxpayers.
MJ Burke, first executive vice president of the AFGE National VA Council, said even before Trump’s attacks, budget uncertainty means hiring at the VA was already frozen. The VA needed to hire 1,000 doctors and 5,000 registered nurses a year just to keep up with retirements. Now the administration wants to pile reductions on top of vacancies the agency already has, raising concerns about care for veterans.
“The goal of the current administration and and their flurry of executive orders is clear -- regardless of whether they are eliminating telework, or enacting hiring freezes, or potentially replacing us at a one-to-four ratio. Ultimately, they want to force a federal employee reduction and turn more VA care over to the private sector with the result of diminishing the quality of care that we internally can provide to our veterans,” she said.
Burke vowed to fight these directives and urged VA employees to “Stay strong, stay focused, and above all, stay together!”
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