Data that employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have shared with NPR shows that 11,273 agency employees nationwide have applied for deferred resignation, which the Trump administration is offering as part of its DOGE initiative to cut the VA's workforce by 15%.
The top positions across all networks that are requesting deferred resignation are nurses (about 1,300), medical support assistants (about 800) and social workers (about 300).
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins has been adamant that staff cuts will not affect veterans' health care. In a contentious Senate hearing Tuesday, he accused Democrats of fearmongering.
"I will not let you sit here and scare my veterans and scare my employees, because no one has discussed firing doctors or firing nurses," Collins replied to a question from Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. "We've always said that we're going to keep frontline health care."
Blumenthal responded that the secretary has failed to explain how he would reach his stated goal of returning the VA to its 2019 size without affecting care.
"It simply cannot be done. And you may give us a lot of verbiage here, but you're not giving us facts. And facts are essential to accountability," said Blumenthal.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the second-largest department in the U.S. government, after the Defense Department. The VA employs about 470,000 people, of whom the agency says more than 371,000 are health care professionals. They work at 1,380 health care facilities nationwide, including 170 VA medical centers and 1,193 outpatient clinics.
On Thursday, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz told NPR that the agency will be very careful in approving deferred resignations for health care staff.
"While all VA employees may apply for these programs, employees who provide direct or indirect care to veterans will only be approved in very limited circumstances when their separation fulfills mission needs. Approval for staff in these positions requires multiple high-level reviews, and VA anticipates very few of these applications to be approved," he said.
At Tuesday's hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont highlighted concerns about an already existing shortage of medical providers at the VA, asking Collins: "Do you acknowledge there's a shortage of doctors, nurses, social workers in the VA?"
"I acknowledge there's a shortage for everybody in the health care industry on those same issues," Collins responded.
"But in the VA?" Sanders asked.
"We are the same as every other health care system. We're struggling to recruit doctors, nurses and others, just as anybody else, and that's something we're constantly in outreach about."
Collins said that his goal with the workforce reduction is to increase productivity, eliminate waste and bureaucracy, and increase efficiency in order to improve veteran health care and benefits.
"We have been emphatic that we will not be cutting benefits and health care, only improving them," Collins said.
But VA staff (25% of whom are veterans themselves) and vets who use VA care are concerned. In a recent poll by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, more than 4 out of 5 veterans (81%) said they are concerned that recent federal cuts could impact veteran benefits and health care.
At a May 2 protest outside the VA facility in Tucson, Ariz., Alex Maldonado, a veteran and organizer with the group Veterans for Peace, said proposed cuts to VA staff are too big.
"Those are the people we need right now to answer phones, talk to veterans, talk to us about our appointments, just somebody to talk to," Maldonado said.
"A lot of veterans are calling us, and they're worried because they're afraid that this is going to affect their health care, this is going to affect the benefits," said Dan Clare, with Disabled American Veterans.
"The secretary might be able to find some efficiencies, might be able to do some amazing things," said Clare "It's just we're not getting the answers to who's being cut, what jobs are going away, how that can affect veterans."
That's tough for veterans, and VA employees. One VA employee, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said, "The mental stress so many people are working under, not knowing the status of their jobs, that indirectly also affects patient care."
VA employees were notified via email that the deadline to apply for deferred resignation, which was initially set for April 30, has now been extended through May 16.
Employees who request and are approved for the deferred resignation would separate from the agency by Sept. 30 and would go on administrative leave on either July 1 or seven days after, or seven days after both employee and manager have signed the necessary paperwork if the employee is age 40 or older, according to myfedbenefitshelp.com.
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