U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs administers healthcare, benefits and pensions for military veterans, and operates the largest integrated health system in the country. Entries naming it from 2025 onward record staffing and programme reductions and the handling of appropriated funds.
Also known as VA
2026 Events (1)
VA investigated employees who attended vigils for slain colleague Alex Pretti and spoke to the press
CNN reported on May 5, 2026 that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opened internal investigations into employees who attended vigils for Alex Pretti — a VA nurse killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January 2026 — and who spoke to the news media about him. Becky Halioua, a recreational therapist and union leader at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, was investigated for giving a media interview without prior approval; investigators emailed her news photographs of herself at the January 28 vigil with her face circled and labeled. At least three other VA employees were investigated over press contacts, and unions called the probes a "scare tactic" to silence outspoken staff.
2025 Events (2)
VA Secretary Collins terminated collective bargaining for 80% of VA's 400,000-person workforce
On August 6, 2025, VA Secretary Doug Collins terminated the Department of Veterans Affairs' collective bargaining agreements with most of its federal unions — including AFGE, NAGE, NFFE, NNOC/NNU, and SEIU — stripping roughly 80% of the agency's 400,000-person workforce of collectively bargained workplace protections. The VA acted under a Trump executive order declaring union contracts a national security threat, and did so while appearing to disregard OPM's own guidance on implementation.
VA Chief of Staff Syrek issued internal memo ordering elimination of ~83,000 positions to return to pre-PACT Act staffing levels
On March 4, 2025, Department of Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek issued an internal memo directing the VA to return to 2019 staffing levels of approximately 399,957 employees — roughly 83,000 fewer than its current workforce. The memo, developed in coordination with DOGE, set a May 9 internal review deadline, a June reorganization plan, and layoffs beginning in August. The planned reduction would functionally reverse the VA's congressionally-directed hiring expansion undertaken to implement the PACT Act, the 2022 law expanding healthcare and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances.