King Lashes Out at “Dishonest” VA Staffing Cuts

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee (SVAC) released the below statement following exclusive new reporting in the Washington Post claiming that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be eliminating as many as 35,000 mostly unfilled healthcare positions, including some in Maine:

"After months of deflecting, dissembling, and doublespeak, there are now reports of damaging staffing cuts at the Veterans Administration (VA) - and as many as 35,000 health care positions could be eliminated in the upcoming weeks.

"Abraham Lincoln outlined the mission of the VA in his second inaugural address when he said it is America's responsibility 'to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.' And since its founding in 1930, the VA has worked to repay the debt we, as a country, owe to the servicemembers who defend our principles.

"That is why the news that this administration is hollowing out this hallowed agency is a disservice to everyone who has worn the uniform. Cutting staff means more than cutting positions - it means cutting services and denying timely care to those who have earned these benefits. And it means asking the selfless medical professionals and support staff at the VA to do more with less. The VA has never enjoyed the budget it deserves or a smooth agency-wide, integrated process, but to be rewarded with crippling staffing cuts will cause serious physical and mental harm to our veterans.

"Now that they are being questioned about these cuts, the administration is trying to claim these are merely vacant positions that are going to be done away with. But to anyone who has walked into any business with a 'help wanted' sign on the window and faced slow or shoddy service, we know that an unfilled job is not an unnecessary job - especially when the VA Inspector General's office found a severe nationwide staff shortage earlier this year. So rather than stepping up for our veterans, this White House is cutting back. That's unacceptable.

"On more than one occasion this past year in the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have asked administration representatives point blank whether they had plans to cancel contracts or cut staff. In those exchanges, they would claim they wouldn't fire direct care workers, but didn't address whether they would or would not fill direct care vacancies. Their responses at the time seemed incomplete or evasive; in the light of these new reports, the VA staff's denials seem outright dishonest."

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