Trump may cut 80,000 VA employees, memo reportedly says
Trump admin plans to cut 80,000 employees from VA
The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning an "aggressive" reorganization that includes cutting 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care for retired military members, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top level officials at the agency that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
More than 80,000 jobs could be cut from the Department of Veterans Affairs under a reorganization plan, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
VA layoffs
What they're saying:
The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top level officials at the agency that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000.
Big picture view:
That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded under the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
Dig deeper:
Last week, the White House also said it wanted to cut $2 billion in VA contracts, which would affect anything from cancer care to the ability to assess toxic exposure.
The department quickly paused the cuts following concerns about the impact on critical health services.
FILE - The Tibor Rubin Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images)
Why you should care:
The cuts have the potential to affect health care for retired military members. More than 9 million veterans get physical and mental health care from the VA.
Additionally, many veterans could be out of a job as more than 25% of the VA's workforce is veterans.
Federal employees fired
The backstory:
Layoffs and firings have affected many federal departments in recent weeks.
Since Donald Trump took office in January, one of his top priorities has been cutting and reorganizing spending within the federal government.
The president has tapped billionaire businessman Elon Musk to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked with finding and prioritizing what to cut. Thousands of federal government employees have been laid off or fired in the process.
The other side:
According to the agency’s website, as of March 5, 2025, DOGE estimates its savings around $105 billion. The agency attributes this to "a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancelations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancelations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings."
The Source: Information in this article was obtained from a Department of Veterans Affairs internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Background information on the VA and federal agency cuts was taken from previous FOX Television Station reportings and The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit.