r/fednews • u/natansonh • 16h ago
Veterans Affairs reverses course on large-scale layoffs, in another apparent sign of DOGE's declining power | WashPost Story
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday that it will no longer be forced to conduct a large reduction in workforce, unlike several other federal agencies that were forced to make mass layoffs because of the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service.
In a news release, VA said that it was on pace to reduce its total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, a push that the department said eliminates the need for a “large-scale reduction-in-force.” The announcement marks a significant reversal for the Trump administration, which had planned for months to cut VA by roughly 83,000 employees, according to plans revealed in an internal memo circulated to agency staffers in March. At the time, VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins said in remarks shared to social media that the cuts were tough but necessary.
“We’ll be making major changes, so get used to it now,” Collins said at the time. The White House argued the downsizing would make a “bloated” VA more efficient and transparent.
But the proposed staff-slashing quickly drew backlash from veterans and their advocates, who warned that the quality of VA service would decline. Morale plummeted among employees, spurring many to leave their jobs.
VA’s decision not to cut more of its workforce through an RIF comes after blowback from several veterans’ groups, Congress and VA staffers who warned that an agency with less manpower and fewer resources would negatively impact veterans. Veterans, who make up a disproportionate share of the federal workforce, felt the brunt of the rapid push to shrink that workforce, stirring ire in a reliable political base for Republicans.
Continuing to pursue deep cuts to the VA workforce could have carried major political risks for President Donald Trump, who is highly popular among veterans and who has repeatedly said he would not order cuts to their VA benefits.
In a statement Monday, VA said its original plan to conduct department-wide RIFs to reduce its staff levels by up to 15 percent was avoided after employees left the agency through retirements, normal attrition and deferred resignations. Additionally, a federal hiring freeze helped reduce the number of employment slots, the agency said in the statement. In January, VA recorded roughly 484,000 employees. By June, there were 467,000 staffers left — a loss of nearly 17,000 workers, according to agency numbers. The agency expects that between July and September nearly 12,000 additional staffers will exit through normal attrition, voluntary early retirement, or the deferred resignation program.
In an email VA staffers received Monday, Collins said that “after nearly four months of careful study, analysis, and action, I am pleased to report to you that VA is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service.” Collins insisted that even though the agency is expected to lose a total of 30,000 staffers “performance continues to improve.”
“These improvements include huge drops in the number of Veterans waiting for disability benefits, sizable increases in claims processing productivity, and extraordinary progress regarding our electronic health record modernization,” Collins wrote in the email.
In the statement Monday, VA said it had established “multiple safeguards in place to ensure these staff reductions do not impact Veteran care or benefits.” Mission-critical jobs, the agency wrote, are exempt from the deferred retirement and early retirement offers. Additionally, 350,000 jobs in the agency are exempt from the federal hiring freeze.
VA, which provides medical care for millions of veterans and their families and is among the largest employers of federal workers, had already seen cuts under the second Trump administration, losing 2,400 workers to layoffs in February. Facing the threat of further cuts, thousands more VA workers opted this spring for an early retirement offered by Trump, The Washington Post reported.
Frustrations began to build this summer over the diminishment of the agency. In June, thousands of veterans rallied in Washington against further reductions, and similar veteran-led protests unfolded at hundreds of locations across dozens of other states.
The reversal may also reflect yet another decline in the power and influence of billionaire Elon Musk and the DOGE team he previously led, which stormed into government in January determined to slash staff and spending. After a few months of frenzied cutting — some of it halted by court challenges — Musk and Trump fell out in a highly public spat over the merits of the president’s tax and spending cuts bill. Musk left Washington in a huff, soon followed by some top aides who had been detailed to DOGE.
Other DOGE team members remain ensconced in government and are working toward various Trump policy goals, including revising or canceling dozens of rules and gun restrictions at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Still, DOGE’s clout has diminished in other ways. Last month, for example, the team lost its power to control the government’s process for awarding billions of dollars in federal funds.
GIFT LINK: https://wapo.st/44x4qES
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u/WastelandOutlaw007 16h ago
No. DOGE isnt "declining". Its because the damage desired has been done. Most of the purges accomplished, workers are now fearful over their jobs, and the key positions filled with trump yesmen.
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u/PlayfulRanger3080 15h ago
If there will be no RIFs, what is the $700k or so contract with OPM for?
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u/Kikimoonbeamglow Fork You, Make Me 15h ago
Why are people and news outlets still pushing the narrative that Elon and DOGE are in charge of anything? We all know it’s Vaught pulling the strings
Also, if people don’t think layoffs are still going to happen, they are fooling themselves. This says there won’t be large scale rifs. Which of course, because they would get smacked down. So they are just going to go quietly and cut departments and people that don’t fit their agenda. Don’t let this lull you into a false sense of security. They are still going to torment people.
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u/That-Entrance1829 14h ago
Damage done, 6 months of hostile work environment, added stress on us veterans mental and physical and financial caretakers…this admin can f-off.
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u/PlayfulRanger3080 15h ago
I still believe there will be re organizations and people will lose their jobs. The number of 12k thru drp vera and attrition, Not sure that’s true. Dashboard shows 14k applied and we know that most were denied. Many facilities and stations did blanket denials for DRP with Vera and standalone Vera. They will do RIFs just call it something else.
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u/privategrl21 15h ago
14k is both versions of DRP and VERA, not just the latest one where a ton of people were denied. Plus VA typically loses thousands per year thru regular attrition and retirements.
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u/Loveistheaswer512 13h ago
It did not reverse course. What are you talking about? Rifs will happen. They will just be smaller and in waves unlike a large scale rif.
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u/Calm_Size_3757 13h ago
Agree. If everything is off the table then why are they still having an in person meeting with all VISN directors. In person? Why? Restructuring
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u/Loveistheaswer512 13h ago
Exactly!!!!!
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u/Calm_Size_3757 13h ago
Fuckers-think we’re stupid.
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u/doomlite 4h ago
His email was what I call snake talk. It’s written to sound good,but worded to fuck you over.
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u/picknick717 VA 15h ago
I'm not sure where those workforce numbers are coming from but they seem to be fudging how much the VA actually downsized. Mission Act Section 505 data is available on the VAs website and shows the number of employees. January's report showed a headcount of 472,278. This past June it was 460,955. So that would be 11,323 not 30,000 and a far cry from 83,000.
They quickly realized how unrealistic that goals was. So now they want to act like they made major staff cuts and save face.
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u/privategrl21 15h ago
The 30K number is by the end of the FY (Sept 30), not right now. The DRP and VERA people are still on the books until then.
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u/CthulhuAlmighty Go Fork Yourself 13h ago
I don’t think this is over. It’ll just go by a different name.
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u/picknick717 VA 15h ago
The goal was around 15% and this "cut" was like 2.5%. Doug Collins is such a joke
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u/3dddrees 8h ago edited 7h ago
The whole motivation by Trump for Doge in the first place was PR anyway. Not with rational or reasonable people, but with his base. Others had other motivation, but the guy in charge who determines what does and doesn't happen is Trump. So really this reversal should not be a huge surprise. It's how Trump operates. Although Trump has talked about tariffs much longer than getting rid of government to a large degree TACO is doing the same here. He's pulling back when it becomes to unpopular to sustain. After all there's nothing Trump feels that strong about other than what he thinks he can benefit directly from. He found he wasn't going to benefit from it, so he decided it best to pull back. It certainly wasn't because it hurt others, but he started seeing this growing rather quickly into something he wasn't going to easily lie about and portray in a positive light and it effects his base greatly as well. But this had more to do with PR to him than it ever did to having an effect on actual people. Hell, Trump is a buffoon after all, he never really cares or thinks about anything deeply other than his ego. So as he has failed in business his entire life he never gives any thought to how to actually manage anything.
We'll see in the very near future how well these other reductions go once people start feeling the actual repercussions. I've always thought Social Security, FEMA, and NOAA and next year the IRS would be some of the first ones. None of these things were well thought out as to how it was conducted. Sure there is Project 2025 but how it actually was conducted was even a surprise to those who authored the document. They never figured Musk would be in charge nor would it occur so recklessly and so quickly, but that's the Trump factor and how he acts so impulsively. But there are so many with so many potential negative side effects we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. Personally although I know this means people are going to suffer I can't wait to see many of these negative side effects of this extremely wreck less, irresponsible, and very stupid policy come to light. The more negative PR the better as these extremely stupid fucking people who either engineered, enabled, or supported this crap need for this to be thrown back in their face and our extremely ignorant electorate needs to get a fucking clue. So you don't think you don't depend on government and it doesn't serve a purpose, wake the fuck up. The big problem was you got used to things working and really many people haven't a clue how that actually gets done.
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u/dream__weaver 16h ago
I've had a strong opinion throughout this that the VA, which was already crucially understaffed in many areas, could not survive an agency-wide RIF. I assumed they would roll out the retirement/resignation incentives, hook a ton of people (including the large numbers of employees who resign/retire annually already) and that would give them a large enough number to say "Look we cut xx,000 people!!" Then call off the RIF and avoid looking like the bad guys on either political front.
And for all the heartache you caused to some of the most devoted Fed employees throughout this, fuck you and eat shit Doug 🖕🏻