Veterans Affairs Pares Back Mass Layoffs, Sparing 50,000 Jobs

The Department of Veterans Affairs walked back part of a plan for widespread layoffs, diverging from other agencies pursuing deep cuts under pressure from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The VA said on Monday that it no longer aimed to cut 15% of its workforce but instead would eliminate 30,000 positions by the end of the fiscal year through attrition, lowering its original target of more than 80,000.

It may be most significant reversal yet of a plan to cut federal workers under the Trump administration and comes as the president’s feud with Elon Musk—who headed DOGE—grows even more fractious.

Trump also on Monday extended a federal hiring freeze until Oct. 15, though much of the VA is exempted from the directive.

The VA cut nearly 17,000 jobs since the start of 2025 and says it’s on track to eliminate another 12,000 by the end of September. The reductions will be achieved entirely through attrition, early retirements, and deferred resignations, which allow employees to take paid leave—sometimes for months— before they’re removed from the government payroll, the agency said.

The reduction may signal the declining influence of DOGE, once headed by Musk and run by hand-picked subordinates, some of whom still work for the administration. He has traded public barbs with Trump over plans to launch a third party and criticisms of the president’s budget bill.

Trump on July 6 posted that Musk had gone “off the rails,” and become a “train wreck” since leaving the administration. He recently threatened to turn Musk’s own creation against him, calling DOGE “the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”

VA Secretary Doug Collins had faced pushback on the agency’s initial personnel reduction plan from Democrats, who expressed concern it would hurt veterans’ medical care. Some still criticized the Trump administration on Monday, even as it softened its plan.

“VA is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration & DOGE’s slash and trash policies,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) posted on X.com. “This is not ‘natural’ attrition, it is not strategic, & it will inevitably impact veterans’ care & benefits—no matter what blanket assurances the VA Secretary hides behind.”

Unlike other parts of the federal bureaucracy, the VA hasn’t received the same level of criticism from conservatives, largely due to its connection with the military and generally nonpartisan image. More than 400,000 people—a quarter of whom are veterans themselves—work for the agency, which provides health care to more than 9 million.

In a statement, Collins said the VA under Trump had reduced the disability backlog by 30%, and also touted its controversial ban on medical treatment for gender dysphoria. All VA “mission critical” positions are exempt from the reduction plan, the statement said, and more than 350,000 are exempt from the hiring freeze.

“Since March, we’ve been conducting a holistic review of the department centered on reducing bureaucracy and improving services to Veterans,” Collins said. “As a result of our efforts, VA is headed in the right direction—both in terms of staff levels and customer service. A department-wide RIF is off the table, but that doesn’t mean we’re done improving VA.”