Possible VA job cuts anger Daines, Montana colleagues

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) recently raised concerns about media reports indicating that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expected to eliminate 10,000 frontline jobs that serve clinical needs for veteran health care.

“If these reports are true, the fact that job cuts were made to frontline positions directly contradicts claims made by you and other agency leaders who have previously declared that such frontline positions would be free from cuts,” wrote Sen. Daines and two Montana colleagues in a June 14 letter sent to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. 

“This would also be the latest in a long list of failures [at] your department that illustrate a VA in disarray and woefully unprepared or unwilling to adequately serve those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms,” wrote the lawmakers, who included U.S. Reps. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Matt Rosendale (R-MT).

The 10,000 job cuts include psychologists, clinical social workers, and others who have a direct impact on the care veterans receive daily at VA facilities around the country, according to their letter.

Sen. Daines and his colleagues pointed out that every year McDonough has appeared before Congress to request funding increases, U.S. veterans have continued to deal with increasing wait times for VA medical care and services, as well as unavailable acute mental health interventions at certain times.

The lawmakers also noted that at the same time the VA plans to cut frontline jobs due to “some budgetary shortfall,” McDonough “improperly awarded” nearly $11 million in bonuses to career executives who weren’t eligible to receive them.

“It is the lack of proper oversight and the brazen willingness of the VA to violate congressional intent and prioritize issues that have zero impact on improving patient outcomes for veterans that has led to such disdain with the quality of VA care,” they wrote.

Toward determining why the VA is actively cutting frontline clinical jobs, Sen. Daines and the congressmen requested that McDonough answer several questions, including if the VA is, in fact, cutting those jobs, and what strategic goals the VA hopes to achieve through this staffing reduction.

Additionally, they want to know how much of the $11 million in “inappropriate bonuses” have been recouped to date, and into what Veterans Health Administration account those funds have been returned to, among others.

“The Biden VA’s priorities are clearly misplaced and the result has been poor care for veterans,” they charged.