The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is planning on reducing its workforce by 80,000 employees in efforts to reorganize and ‘achieve efficiencies’ according to an internal memo.
The VA employs approximately 38,934 workers across more than 140 facilities in California, including medical centers, outpatient clinics, and benefits administration offices. The department serves around 1.2 million veterans in the state.
In a March 4 memo, VA chief of staff Christopher Syrek said the document initiates the department, in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to ‘identify and eliminate waste’ and ‘reduce management bureaucracy.’
VA secretary Doug Collins said for many years, veterans have been asking for a more efficient, accountable and more transparent VA, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“This administration is finally going to give the veterans what they want,” said Collins.
The days of kicking the can down the road are over. We owe America’s Veterans solutions! pic.twitter.com/KDHMefOWOH
— VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) March 5, 2025
The department’s goal is to reduce its workforce from about 470,000 employees to its 2019 level of 398,000.
No cuts to healthcare or benefits
Collins said the VA is conducting a department wide review of its organization, operation and structure that will result in a 15% decrease in its workforce.
“We’re going to accomplish this without making cuts to healthcare, or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries,” said Collins.
The VA is also conducting a review of 90,000 contracts worth more than $67 billion.
After reviewing 2% of the contracts, Collins said they were able to cancel nearly 600 non-mission critical or duplicative agreements that will save the department roughly $900 million.
‘VA does not exist to employ people, it exists to serve people’
According to the Associated Press, more than 25% of the VA’s workforce is comprised of veterans.
Collins says the days of measuring the VA’s progress by how much money it spends and how many people it employs rather than how many veterans it helps, are over.
“VA does not exist to employ people, it exists to serve people,” said Collins.
He goes on to say that while the VA conducts its review, it will continue to hire for more than 300,000 mission-critical positions to ensure healthcare and benefits to VA beneficiaries are not impacted.
Some recent job terminations have been reversed
Efforts by DOGE and President Donald Trump to reduce the federal government’s size have led to legal challenges and criticism.
In addition, some recent job terminations have been reversed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) re-instated 180 employees and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) temporarily ordered 6,000 employees back to work. Over 200 employees from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were also reinstated.
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