{"id":161,"date":"2025-03-06T06:26:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T06:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/?p=161"},"modified":"2025-03-06T06:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T06:26:23","slug":"questions-grow-about-trump-raid-after-revelation-of-grand-jury-subpoena-extensive-cooperation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/2025\/03\/06\/questions-grow-about-trump-raid-after-revelation-of-grand-jury-subpoena-extensive-cooperation\/","title":{"rendered":"VA to Fire Over 80,000 Employees and Work With DOGE to Bring an End to the Bureaucracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"department<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(The Epoch Times<\/a>)\u2014The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is planning to terminate more than 80,000 workers, according to a new memorandum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo from VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek, which was obtained by Reuters, was sent to other senior officials on March 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syrek said the agency\u2019s goal is to return to staffing levels from 2019\u2014or just under 400,000 employees\u2014which would mean laying off about 84,000 workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VA did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syrek\u2019s memo directed agency staff to work with Trump adviser Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make the cuts. According to the department<\/a>, the VA recently had a headcount of 486,522.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tens of thousands of government employees have been fired since Trump took office, in addition to about 75,000 who accepted buyouts through the Trump administration\u2019s deferred resignation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VA announced<\/a> in mid-February that it had terminated more than 1,000 employees, including some who were still on probationary status as they had held their jobs for less than a year. Two weeks later, the agency said it had fired more than 1,400 additional workers who had been designated as being in \u201cnon-mission critical positions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VA Secretary Doug Collins, a former Georgia congressman, has said the personnel decisions were difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors as possible,\u201d he said in a statement in February, adding that the moves would not hurt the health care or benefits the VA provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, Veterans are going to notice a change for the better. In the coming weeks and months, VA will be announcing plans to put these resources to work, helping the department fulfill its core mission: providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees veteran affairs, said in a statement that the cuts represented \u201can all-out assault \u2026 attacking the VA workforce and the veterans it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the planned terminations appeared to be a step toward privatizing VA services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shameful betrayal, and veterans will pay the price for their unforgivable corruption, incompetence, and immorality,\u201d Blumenthal said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least some of the cuts could be challenged in court or by the Office of Special Counsel. The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, acting on the office\u2019s response, on Wednesday ordered<\/a> the Trump administration to reinstate nearly 6,000 workers who were on probationary status when they were fired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(The Epoch Times)\u2014The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is planning to terminate more than 80,000 workers, according<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuckersurvival.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}