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119th CONGRESS
1st Session |
Condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families.
Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Luján, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Warnock, Ms. Klobuchar, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Alsobrooks, Mr. Kelly, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Peters, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Booker, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Warner, Ms. Smith, Mr. Padilla, and Mr. Heinrich) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families.
Whereas veterans make up approximately 30 percent of the Federal workforce, including nearly 26 percent of the workforce of the Department of Veterans Affairs and 45 percent of the workforce of the Department of Defense;
Whereas more than 642,000 veterans are continuing their public service through careers in the Federal Government;
Whereas veterans bring invaluable experience, including technical expertise, training, security clearances, and commitment to service, to their work as Federal employees;
Whereas, on February 13, 2025, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, announced the termination of 1,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs;
Whereas, on February 24, 2025, Secretary Collins terminated an additional 1,400 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs;
Whereas United States Senators have, in pursuit of their oversight duties, attempted to obtain detailed information from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding these terminations, including any analysis of the impacts on veterans, confirmation that the terminations did not affect essential services like call centers, homeless programs, mental health care, transition assistance, claims processing, tribal health, and veterans education benefits, involvement of unelected, unauthorized, non-Department of Veterans Affairs personnel in the decisionmaking process, and how much the Department of Veterans Affairs spent recruiting and hiring these employees and will now spend covering their workloads, but have yet to receive that information;
Whereas the mass terminations of employees of the Federal Government are damaging the economic security and morale of veterans and their families;
Whereas these terminations are harming the trust of veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and harming the ability of the Department to recruit and retain employees;
Whereas gainful employment and economic security is a chief social determinant of health; and
Whereas veterans and employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have expressed concerns regarding the effect of these terminations, including—
(1) the suspension of service lines, beds, and operating rooms at hospitals and clinics of the Department;
(2) the cancellation or postponement of mammogram and other time-sensitive appointments;
(3) the reduction of support lines for caregivers;
(4) the termination of Veterans Crisis Line employees;
(5) the termination of employees performing critical research at the Department;
(6) the termination of cyber security personnel protecting websites of the Department; and
(7) the termination of Vet Center staff: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That is the sense of the Senate that—
(1) mass terminations of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families should be condemned; and
(2) all affected employees should be reinstated.