John Plahovinsak
On January 23, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issued guidance that exempted 304,000 healthcare posts from the White House federal “hiring freeze.” Any VA employee set to start before February 8, 2025, will be allowed to be hired.
These exempted posts were listed in the guidance as essential to public health and department of operations. Some posts related to veterans benefits processing will also be exempted, but the offices will need to submit justification for those positions.
The guidance memorandum lists thirty-nine (39) exempted health profession posts, including mental health providers, physical therapists, nurses and nursing assistants, medical records administrators, and prosthetic specialists.
Hours after President Trump’s inauguration, he issued an Executive Order for a “hiring freeze” for federal employees. The Order did not apply to immigration enforcement, military personnel, and public safety.
The VA Department ended fiscal 2024 with approximately 454,000 staffers, about 417,000 of whom work in the VA’s medical centers and clinics. About ten (10%) percent workforce (or 40,000 employees) leave the VA each year due to retirement, firings, or other career opportunities.
That ten (10%) percent level of attrition means VA officials need to hire upwards of 40,000 new workers annually to maintain operations at VA medical sites, a significant challenge given the hundreds of locations spread throughout the United States.
The ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Mark Takano, stated that the President’s Executive Order could make hiring 40,000 new workers a significant challenge.
If VA freezes hiring as mandated in Trump’s executive order, veterans could face significant wait times for medical appointments and reductions in access to care and benefits,” Representative Takano stated.
“The drafters of these orders,” concluded Takano, “clearly did not consider the downstream effects of a hiring freeze on the millions of veterans who rely on VA.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, contended, “There are also openings where the facility directors are saying, ‘We need more nurses, we need more doctors, we need more mental health care specialists.’”
“You can’t provide veterans’ health care without the skilled professionals to do it,” Senator Blumenthal affirmed.
The overall intent of the President’s order was that the “hiring freeze” move is needed to slow the growth of the federal government and ordered a 90-day review to examine ways to reduce the government workforce.
“I appreciate VA quickly issuing guidance to continue hiring health care and other critical VA employees to make certain veterans and their families continue receiving their care and benefits in a timely manner,” stated the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran.
“The last two years saw drastic inconsistencies in staffing strategy and guidance on hiring from VA,” continued Senator Jerry Moran, “and I encourage the new administration to establish a clear long-term staffing plan.”
Mr. Doug Collins, the President’s recommended Secretary of the VA, stated
during his confirmation hearing that “exactly what that exception covers is not clear.” Mr. Collins explained that sorting out the uncertainty of the VA exemptions will be among his first priorities.
My Opinion: I concur with the next Secretary of the VA that “exactly what that exception covers is not clear.” However, other effects of what direction the current administration seeks to accomplish are quite evident.
For example, on January 27, 2025, the VA reported that sixty (60) employees that had worked exclusively on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues had been placed on paid administrative leave, the first step for the soon-to-be laid-off employees.
According to the VA, these sixty (60) DEI employees collectively made $8 million dollars annually. These employees represent only about 0.01% of the VA’s workforce and are all still receiving their full pay and benefits while they sit at home on leave.
“We look forward to reallocating the millions of dollars the department was spending on DEI programs and personnel,” said Morgan Ackley, a VA spokesperson, “to better serve the men and women who have bravely served our nation.”
Separately from the VA’s DEI elimination, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has tasked the VA, and other federal agencies, with delivering lists of every employee hired recently and are, therefore, still in their probationary period.
Those probationary period employees can be fired easily without complying with existing civil service regulations.
Another Executive Order, issued late Friday night, fired VA Inspector General Michael Missal, along with seventeen (17) other Inspector Generals, including Department of Defense (DoD) IG Robert Storch.
Ironically, former VA IG Michael Missal was originally appointed by President Trump to the VA IG position on May 2, 2016.
The firing of IGs may have violated a 2022 Federal Law that requires that Congress be notified in advance. The Law requires the administration to must notify Congress 30 days before removing an inspector general.
The current administration is making substantial changes in the federal workforce structure via Executive Orders. These decisions, especially the VA exemptions, will be challenged in the court of law in the future.
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year Army veteran, who served from 1967 to 1999. He had served as an Army Inspector General from 1996 to 1999 and he is the Adjutant of Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be contacted at: plahovinsak@msn.com.