The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to cancel as many as 35,000 unfilled health care positions this month, a swift administrative action that the department claims will streamline operations but that veterans and their advocates warn threatens to deepen strains on a system serving nine million former service members.
The planned elimination, targeting jobs for doctors, nurses, and support staff that are currently vacant, follows the departure of nearly 30,000 VA employees earlier this year through attrition and voluntary programs.
Agency leaders say the cuts will shrink the VA health care workforce to roughly 372,000 employees, a massive reduction from the previous year.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initially proposed eliminating around 83,000 VA jobs, on top of 66,000 vacancies across the health system, which would have left around 399,000 employees.
In January, the VA reported roughly 484,000 employees. By June, there were 467,000 staffers left — a loss of nearly 17,000 workers, according to agency numbers—but there were also 66,000 unfilled jobs, almost all of which are slated for elimination.
Two of New Jersey’s most prolific press release producers, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. and Senator Cory Booker, have not commented on the move to deprive veterans of medical care.
A 2024 report by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) said that 137 of 139 VA health centers nationwide had a severe staffing shortage in at least one area, particularly nursing and psychology.
VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz said the latest move involves “mostly COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary” and will have no effect on VA operations or care delivery.
However, internal unease and external criticism paint a contrasting picture.
Employees across the country report that the removal of these vacant positions eliminates hope for reinforcements at understaffed facilities.
About 131,000 of New Jersey’s nearly 300,000 veterans are enrolled and receiving care through the VA healthcare system, which operates major facilities in Lyons and East Orange.
The VA serves New Jersey veterans through two major medical centers in East Orange and Lyons, along with a network of community-based outpatient clinics in cities including Hackensack, Hamilton, Jersey City, Morristown, Paterson, Piscataway, Sussex, Tinton Falls, and Toms River.
One VA system mental health employee there noted that veterans already wait between 60 and 90 days for services.
The job cancellations arrive amidst a broader restructuring under Secretary Doug Collins, a former Georgia congressman appointed by President Donald Trump.
Collins has championed a philosophy of a leaner VA, arguing that reducing bureaucracy and administrative costs redirects resources to veterans.
He has pointed to departmental data showing a nearly 30 percent reduction in the disability claims backlog and the processing of a record two million claims this fiscal year as evidence of improving efficiency.
Yet these metrics are met with skepticism by those who fear the human cost of austerity.
“The VA has been chronically understaffed for years, and employees are obviously going to be facing the brunt of any further job cuts,” said Thomas Dargon Jr., deputy general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents over 320,000 VA workers.
AFGE is among those that had their collective bargaining agreements terminated by the VA in August, a move the department said would free staff from union activities to focus on veterans.
“Our fight wasn’t just about jobs—it was about what those jobs mean for our veterans,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “We’re relieved that the most extreme elements of (Trump’s) plan have been abandoned. But we will be watching closely to see what these remaining cuts mean on the ground.”
Veterans themselves express growing anxiety.
Ikram Mansori, a decorated Army combat veteran and member of San Francisco’s Veterans Affairs Commission, reports palpable worry within the community.
“A lot of veterans are anxious, and veterans like myself — I’m mostly worried about our unhoused veterans, our veterans who suffer from PTSD,” Mansori said. Their concerns are rooted in recent history.
Past initiatives to expand veterans’ access to private care, such as the MISSION Act, sometimes resulted in longer delays and higher costs, according to independent analyses.
The tension between top-down efficiency drives and on-the-ground reality appears stark in day-to-day operations.
Earlier this year, NPR reported episodes of managerial whiplash, including mistaken firings at the veterans’ suicide crisis hotline and a short-lived, unworkable $1 spending limit on employee purchase cards used for critical supplies like dialysis machine parts.
A VA doctor described the card limit as feeling like a troll, a move that was “not funny” when it impacted medical equipment.
During a September visit to the San Diego VA, Secretary Collins defended his approach, calling criticism “lies” and emphasizing that reductions were achieved through attrition, not layoffs.
He praised the local facility while acknowledging a sobering national statistic: an average of more than 17 veterans die by suicide daily, with 60 percent having had no contact with the VA.
Local advocate Scott Silverman, whose nonprofit was not invited to the secretary’s meeting, questioned the VA’s outreach, describing the benefits system as a complex “Badlands”.
The fundamental disagreement rests on a definition of “essential.” The administration asserts it is protecting mission-critical front-line roles.
Front-line staff offer a broader view. “Pretty much any occupation in healthcare is a mission-critical occupation,” argued Mark Smith, an occupational therapist and union local president in San Francisco. “If a scheduler… is terminated, it becomes much more difficult for the primary care provider or the mental health therapist to do their job”.
As the department proceeds with its cuts, the ultimate measure will be found not in budget documents but in the waiting rooms of VA clinics and the lives of the veterans they exist to serve.
The nation watches, as it often has, to see if the balance between efficiency and care can be struck, or if the system will learn, once more, that doing more with less often means some receive nothing at all.