VA Loses 7,500 Employees In Veteran-Facing Roles Amid Shrinking Workforce

“FEDERAL NEWS NEWORK” By Jory Heckman

“Includes a net loss of 1,720 registered nurses, nearly 1,150 medical support assistants, more than 600 physicians, nearly 200 police officers, nearly 80 psychologists and nearly 1,100 veteran claim examiners.”

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“The Department of Veterans Affairs is reining in its use of pay incentives to recruit and retain employees in veteran-facing health care jobs.

But the VA is also seeing lower staffing levels for some of these mission-critical positions.

The latest VA data shows that about 7,500 employees in veteran-facing jobs have left the department so far this fiscal year.

That includes a net loss of 1,720 registered nurses, nearly 1,150 medical support assistants, more than 600 physicians, nearly 200 police officers, nearly 80 psychologists and nearly 1,100 veteran claim examiners.

VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz said the net loss of 7,500 employees in veteran-facing jobs so far this fiscal year is the result of attrition, and that the department expects to rehire for these roles. 

The VA is also bringing fewer employees on board. The latest VA data shows the department is seeing a 45% decrease in job applications submitted between fiscal 2025 and 2024, and a 56% reduction in new employees starting jobs.

The department, more broadly, is on track to shed nearly 30,000 employees through attrition by the end of the fiscal year. The department says these positions are mostly administrative roles, and does not intend to fill them once employees leave.

The VA says it is no longer considering a “department-wide” reduction-in-force to cut more than 80,000 positions. VA Secretary Doug Collins says the staff reductions will not impact veteran care or benefits.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House VA Committee’s oversight subcommittee, said in a hearing Tuesday that “there’s just no possible way” the VA could lose this many employees in critical roles without it having an impact on veteran-facing services.

“How can Secretary Collins look at us and at veterans with a straight face and say that veterans care has not been affected by staffing changes, when he’s lost at least 7,500 veteran-facing employees?” Ramirez said.

The VA exempted many veteran-facing health care jobs from the deferred resignation and early retirement offers. But Sheila Elliot, a pharmacist at the Hampton, Virginia VA Medical Center and president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2328, said the VA is still losing mission-critical employees.

“When you rely on random reductions, there can be danger there. You don’t know which critical and which noncritical position is going to be reduced,” Elliot said.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) said she’s pleased the VA isn’t pursuing a large-scale reduction of force, and has been reassured by VA leadership that “any early retirements will come from redundant positions and non-essential personnel.”

The VA, so far this fiscal year, has sharply rolled back its use of recruitment, retention and relocation (3R) incentives.

The department awarded 14,585 critical skills incentives in fiscal 2024, but has only granted a single CSI so far this fiscal year.

The department issued 19,484 retention incentives last year, but approved 7,485 this year — a more than 60% decrease.

The VA awarded more than 6,000 recruitment incentives last year, but issued just over 1,000 this fiscal year — more than an 80% decrease.

VA Chief Human Capital Officer Tracey Therit told lawmakers that the department can fill most vacant direct-care positions without using these incentives.

“There has to be a justification for using a recruitment or a retention incentive. In many situations… we are able to post these job announcements, get qualified candidates and bring them on without using an incentive,” Therit said.

More than 350,000 VA positions are exempt from a government-wide hiring freeze that President Donald Trump recently extended to Oct. 15. Therit said the VA is hiring several thousand VA employees each two-week pay period.

VA’s inspector general office, in a report last year, found the department improperly awarded $10.8 million in critical skills incentives (CSIs) to more than 180 executives in September 2023.

VA said more than 90% of those critical skills incentives went to eligible recipients — including police officers, housekeepers and food service workers. The department has recouped about 90% of the improperly awarded bonuses.

The watchdog office, however, continues to flag improperly awarded incentives.

A VA inspector general office report last month found that the Veterans Health Administration awarded $30,000 in relocation incentives to a VHA employee who never relocated.

Kiggans said the latest IG’s report shows that these incentives have been “paid out with very little oversight.”

“For far too long, they have been carelessly handled,” Kiggans said.

Shawn Steel, director of the human capital and operations division at the VA IG’s office, said the department “continues to experience staffing shortages for positions fundamental to the safe and effective delivery of care to veterans.”

Therit told lawmakers that while VA employees can receive recruitment and relocation incentives for up to four years, retention incentives only last for about a year, and allow the department to come up with contingency plans.

“We’re looking at somebody who’s likely to leave federal service and has a unique skill that we can’t afford to walk out the door, and we need a short period of time to put that succession plan in place, to either develop someone with those skills to step in when they depart, or to be able to recruit somebody before they leave,” Therit said.

Therit said these incentives can help the VA make more competitive job offers to candidates in certain specialty areas. Pay caps for health care professionals at VA, she added, “have not kept pace” with rising salaries for health care professionals and specialists in the private sector.

“While the 3R incentive program is an important tool for the department in attracting and retaining talent, it is not enough for the VA to remain competitive with industry,” she said.

Kiggans added that “these bonuses, when used correctly, enable the VA to pay attractive salaries to valuable clinical staff and other VA employees who serve our veterans.”

“These incentive payments should go to staff dedicated to providing world-class care for our veterans. When the VA cannot retain its good employees or recruit talented staff, patient care is the first to suffer,” she said.

Elliot said incentives are needed to staff up the North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic in Chesapeake, Virginia, which opened in April.

Elliot said the facility opened with about 27% of its staffing goal this spring, and is struggling to compete with the private sector for health care candidates.

“We urge the VA to use these bonuses and other tools to increase capacity at the clinic,”  she said.

The clinic opened in April with 150 staff in core services, including primary care, mental health and pharmacy. This month, the clinic added dental and additional mental health services.

By January 2026, the facility is scheduled to be fully operational with radiology, optometry, telehealth and other services.

Elliot said a VA psychologist at the North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic left after receiving a better offer in the private sector.

“With no relocation bonus offered, that psychologist was able to get a relocation bonus from someplace else, and that’s where that psychologist is going,” Elliot said.”

VA loses 7,500 employees in veteran-facing roles amid shrinking workforce

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jory Heckman is a reporter with Federal News Network and the host of All About Data, a biweekly radio show and podcast that features the work of chief data officers and the people who are making data work better in government. He graduated from Hofstra University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and political science. He also studied political science at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.