Minnesota veterans worried over government layoffs
There are fresh concerns about some Minnesota veterans who were laid off from their jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
At least 2,400 VA employees were fired last month as part of the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to the size and scope of the federal government. at least a dozen of those people were from the hospital at Fort Snelling.
"I can't be mad at anybody because it's such a shock and awe campaign," William Stein, who was fired from his job at Fort Snelling VA Clinic, said. "It's absolutely bombastic."
Stein was a flight engineer in the Marines and started working at Fort Snelling Cemetery in 2019. He later got what he called his dream job as an administrative manager at the hospital.
"There's a certain calling to become a Marine and that duty and obligation has absolutely followed through every step of the way in my life since then," he explained. "It's a lot of work to be a VA employee. They have such strict guidelines."
According to Stein, two of his colleagues received an email on Feb. 24 from the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency notifying them of their job losses. Stein himself received the email later that afternoon as he was consoling them.
"I would say the varied amount of information coming in is the most challenging," Stein said. "And it's not from one particular source. I don't even know where to go."
Stein said he did call his congressional representative, DFL Rep. Angie Craig, who told him that she's been inundated with calls from fellow veterans.
"The calls that I'm getting right now from some of the folks who've been let go are people who have PTSD from their time in war," Craig said. "Before we start cutting mass numbers of veterans, we should at least know what they're doing and who they're serving."
VA budget nears $370 billion
Despite the concerns about its employees, the VA has long been regarded by federal officials as a ripe opportunity for reform.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has both "Managing Risks and Improving VA Health Care" and "VA Acquisition Management" on its high risk list, which consists of "programs and operations with serious vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, or in need of transformation."
"The Biden Administration astronomically grew the department's budget and number of employees, and VA wait times and backlogs increased," VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz said. "We are doing things differently."
Federal records show more than 480,000 people work at the VA — roughly one in five federal employees. Its nearly $370 billion budget is also among the biggest line items of federal spending.
"VA has laid off 2,400 probationary employees in non-mission-critical positions, such as publicists, interior designers, and diversity, equity and inclusion officers," Kasperowicz said. "That's one-half of 1% of VA's workforce. So the notion that these layoffs are causing issues across the department is false."
A federal judge in Maryland issued a ruling on March 13 in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia challenging the mass firings of probationary government workers. The judge ordered thousands of fired probationary workers to be reinstated.
