The VA is planning to cut 30,000 positions by the end of the fiscal year, further degrading and understaffing VA facilities, which already has an extreme staffing crisis.
Current policies are threatening to privatize care, undermine the entire VA system, and threaten veteran care. The administration’s attacks on federal workers and their unions are attacks on the quality of care our veterans receive.
“Becky Halioua, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 217 said. “It should be considered an act of fraud, waste, and abuse to funnel more money into sending veterans’ care into the private sector, particularly when data shows that veterans overwhelmingly want their care to stay at the VA. The best way to improve veteran care is to increase staffing and provide VA employees with the resources they need to do their jobs safely and effectively, not to send veterans into a private sector health care system that does not understand their unique needs.”
The August 2024 Inspector General’s report stated that 82 percent of VA facilities have severe shortages in staffing. At the same time the number of veterans seeking care is rising.
“At Common Defense, a national organization of veterans and military families, we have been organizing since the beginning of this administration to make our voices heard through our ‘VA: Not For Sale Campaign,’” said Ed Anderson, an Air Force veteran and lead organizer for Common Defense based in Georgia. “We will not stand for the gutting of the system many veterans depend on for their healthcare and benefits. This isn’t just about budget cuts, it’s about every one of us who served, and every VA staffer, many of whom are veterans, who will lose their livelihoods.”
To silence federal workers from speaking out about these detrimental policy changes and service reductions, the administration is trying to strip federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.
