(Bloomberg) — A memo sent to staffers at the Department of Veterans Affairs said that the agency plans to return to pre-2019 staffing levels, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg News, meaning tens of thousands of employees could lose their jobs.
The VA, which provides care for millions of veterans across the country, had just under 400,000 employees in 2019, according to the memo. Before layoffs started at the agency last month as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut the federal workforce, its headcount had reached nearly 480,000. More than a quarter of the agency’s staff are veterans themselves.
The memo, dated March 4 and signed by VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek, said it was implementing the reduction in coordination with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The DOGE staffer embedded with the VA is Justin Fulcher, a co-founder of telemedicine startup RingMD.
A spokesperson for the VA didn’t respond to a request for comment and Syrek didn’t respond to a call and text message requesting comment.
The VA is one of the federal government’s largest employers. Its growth over the past several years is due in large part to the PACT Act, a 2022 law that expanded health care and benefits for millions of veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances.
The new efforts to cut staff will commence over the next month and a half, with plans for the reorganization to be published in June and implemented before the end of the fiscal year, the memo said.
The memo, which was first reported by Government Executive, also said that the VA will establish an implementation team that will work with members of DOGE to manage the reductions. The DOGE workers will update the Trump administration on the cutbacks.
By March 10, leaders at the VA should submit organizational charts with information about essential positions, mandatory functions by statute and technology systems and their staff, the memo said.
Prior to Tuesday’s memo, the agency had already said that more than 2,400 employees and 585 contracts would be terminated. In addition, the federal hiring freeze put in place by Trump will effectively lead to the dismissal of hundreds of VA researchers, jeopardizing the study of treatments for cancer, drug withdrawal and other health issues.
(Updates with additional detail on VA staff and restructuring memo beginning in second paragraph.)
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