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richard blumenthal
'Outright Betrayal of Veterans': Fury Over Trump-Musk Plan to Fire 83,000 VA Workers
A House Democrat warned the move "will cripple the very system that millions of veterans rely on, denying them access to lifesaving healthcare, claims processing, and education benefits they've earned."
Mar 05, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's sweeping effort to gut the federal government includes cutting up to 83,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a leaked memo that sparked a furious response on Wednesday.
VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek's memo to top staff was first reported by Government Executive late Tuesday.
As the outlet detailed: "The forthcoming cuts will be sweeping and spare no part of the department, Syrek said. He set an initial target of VA's staffing level in fiscal 2019, or 399,000 workers. VA currently employs 482,000 staff—and 459,000 full-time workers—meaning VA plans to slash its workforce by upwards of 83,000 individuals." Over a quarter of department employees are veterans.
"Trump and Musk want to take away veterans' healthcare to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires. It's a morally bankrupt plan that will prevent those who served our country from getting the care they need."
U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chair Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said in a statement that "I have questions about the impact these reductions and discussions could have on the delivery of services," and "I have been in contact with" Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins since the memo leaked. The panel's ranking member, Mark Takano (D-Calif.), was far more critical.
"This deliberate dismantling of VA's workforce by firing an additional 80,000 employees isn't just dangerous—it's an outright betrayal of veterans," said Takano. He warned that a return to the staffing level before the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, 2022 legislation to help those exposed to burn pits, "will cripple the very system that millions of veterans rely on, denying them access to lifesaving healthcare, claims processing, and education benefits they've earned."
Takano called on Bost to "immediately hold a hearing to get answers—because what's happening here isn't just a bureaucratic decision, it's a crisis in the making." He also demanded that Collins "explain how this reckless attack on VA won't have catastrophic consequences for veterans' access to care, benefits, and education."
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) similarly said that "Congress worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the PACT Act and equip VA with the tools and resources needed to serve more veterans than ever. Since January 20, this administration has launched an all-out assault undermining that progress and attacking the VA workforce and the veterans it serves."
"This memo makes their goal crystal clear: They want to roll back the PACT Act by cutting 80,000 jobs—including 20,000 veterans—while starving VA's ability to meet increased demand in order to justify privatizing VA," Blumenthal continued. "Their plan prioritizes private sector profits over veterans' care, balancing the budget on the backs of those who served. It's a shameful betrayal, and veterans will pay the price for their unforgivable corruption, incompetence, and immorality."
Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), an Iraq War veteran, declared on the Musk-owned platform X that "they are trying to destroy the VA. Miss me with your flag waving GOP ads wrapping yourself in my fellow veterans. We're up for this fight."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hosted a Wednesday press conference about GOP attacks on veterans. He said that "thousands of veterans across the country have been hurt by the extreme reactions of Donald Trump, the Trump administration, Elon Musk, and MAGA Republicans. It's unacceptable. It's unconscionable. It's un-American."
"And there are several veterans here today to tell their stories to the American people about what is happening and the fact that veterans all across this great country are being harmed," Jeffries explained. "Our promise to veterans and this country is that we will always stand with you."
The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained the memo and spoke with Michael Missal, one of several inspectors general suing over Trump's recent dismissal of the watchdogs. He told the AP that the VA is already suffering from a lack of "expertise" at the top of the agency.
"What's going to happen is VA's not going to perform as well for veterans, and veterans are going to get harmed," warned Missal, who was Blumenthal's guest for Trump's Tuesday address to Congress. The ousted inspector general described the VA as "a really complicated, hard to manage organization," like a big corporation, and defended his work there.
Outrage over the VA's plan to work with the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to "resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure," as Syrek put it, reached far beyond members of government.
"Trump and Musk want to take away veterans' healthcare to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires. It's a morally bankrupt plan that will prevent those who served our country from getting the care they need," said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. "Every House Republican should be point-blank whether they stand by Trump and Musk’s plan to cut healthcare for our veterans."
The watchdog Accountable.US called the reporting on the memo "damning," while American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley, stressed that the layoffs "will destroy the VA's ability fulfill the PACT Act's promises to veterans who either died or became ill as a result of exposure to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances."
"The VA has been severely understaffed for many years, resulting in longer wait times for veterans in need," the union leader said. "The DOGE plunder of career VA employees, adding to the illegal mass firings of thousands of probationary employees, can only make matters worse. Veterans and their families will suffer unnecessarily, and the will of Congress will be ignored."
On behalf of the 311,000 VA employees his union represents, Kelley urged Congress "to intervene in these un-American tactics and put a stop to Elon Musk's DOGE rampage through America's most cherished agencies in a blatant attempt to justify privatizing government services."
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Democrats Introduce Bill to Boost Migrant Family Reunion
Rep. Delia Ramirez said the bill she co-authored "aims to urgently reunite families, and to affirm that families should never be separated by our government at our borders."
Dec 18, 2024
Facing the looming specter of revived anti-migrant policies during the second term of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced bicameral legislation to authorize a Biden administration task force "to continue its work to reunite the thousands of families torn apart by Trump's zero-tolerance policy that inhumanely separated children from their parents," and "prevent future separation."
On International Migrants Day, Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez (Ill.) and Joaquin Castro (Texas), along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), and Ed Markey (Mass.), introduced the Family Reunification Task Force Act, which comes on the heels of a report by human rights groups revealing that as many as 1,360 migrant children who were separated from their parents during Trump's first term have yet to be reunited.
"Trump's cruel zero-tolerance policy of ripping families apart intentionally inflicted irreparable trauma on immigrant parents, children, and communities," Ramirez said in a statement Wednesday. "It's a practice we will never—and should never—forget or repeat."
"While we can never fully right those wrongs, the Family Reunification Task Force Act is a critical means to address the harm inflicted on the families separated at our border," she added. "Our legislation aims to urgently reunite families, and to affirm that families should never be separated by our government at our borders."
Democratic President Joe Biden created the Family Reunification Task Force via a 2021 executive order that immigrant advocates fear will be rescinded after Trump takes office next month. Thousands of migrant children were separated from their families during Trump's first term. According to a ProPublica report published last week, the Biden administration has also separated hundreds of migrant children from their parents or legal guardians.
Trump has vowed to begin mass deportations on his first day in office. He is also seeking to end birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, and has suggested that instead of separating families in which children are U.S. citizens, he would deport them along with their undocumented parents.
"The first Trump administration's family separation policy was a catastrophic failing, and still, six years later, hundreds of children remain apart from their parents," Blumenthal said Wednesday. "The Family Reunification Task Force has done important work to identify and reunite families traumatized by this cruel policy and that work is not yet done. This bill is a necessary step to continue to right the wrongs of family separation, no matter who is in office."
Dozens of advocacy groups are supporting the legislation.
"My family and I thank the members of Congress who support the Family Reunification Task Force so that children that are still separated from their families can be reunited at last," said Kseniia M. of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, one of the groups backing the bill.
"The months we were separated from our then 3-year-old daughter were incredibly painful, and as a family, we will live with the repercussions of that separation for the rest of our lives," she added. "We urge the U.S. government to continue to prioritize reunification and justice for all families affected by family separation policies."
Sarah Mehta, senior border policy counsel at the ACLU, said, "The family separation policy was one of the darkest chapters of the previous Trump administration, with babies and toddlers taken from their parents' arms, and thousands of families ripped apart."
"For too many families still awaiting reunification, this disastrous nightmare continues," Mehta added. "We need legislation like the Family Reunification Task Force Act so that these children are not forgotten and can finally return to their loved ones."
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Federal Prosecutors Recommend Criminal Charges for Boeing
"Apparently, you have to kill hundreds of people before they even start to think about consequences," said one observer.
Jun 24, 2024
Federal prosecutors have recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice criminally charge Boeing for violating a 2021 settlement over two fatal crashes of the aerospace giant's troubled 737 MAX jetliners.
As Reutersreported Monday:
In May, officials determined the company breached a 2021 agreement that had shielded Boeing from a criminal charge of conspiracy to commit fraud arising from two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the 737 MAX jet. Under the 2021 deal, the Justice Department agreed not to prosecute Boeing over allegations it defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration so long as the company overhauled its compliance practices and submitted regular reports. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Boeing violated the settlement by "failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations."
Boeing declined to comment on the Reuters report. Referring to the settlement, the company said last month that "we believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement."
The DOJ has until July 7 to decide whether to prosecute Boeing officials.
News of the prosecutors' recommendation came days after The New York Timesreported that the DOJ is considering letting Boeing avoid prosecution for violating the terms of the 2021 settlement. According to the Times, the department is weighing a negotiated resolution under which the company takes a plea deal or deferred prosecution agreement (DPA)—which would impose monitoring and compliance terms—in lieu of a trial fraught with uncertainties.
Boeing entered into a DPA after 737 MAX jets crashed, killing hundreds of people. On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight JT610, a nearly new 737 MAX 8, crashed into the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. Indonesian investigators subsequently concluded that a faulty sensor caused the plane's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to continually tilt the aircraft downward.
On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, also a MAX 8, crashed into a field six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia en route to Nairobi, Kenya. All 157 people aboard were killed. Boeing acknowledged that a MCAS-related software error caused the crash and vowed to "prevent erroneous data from causing MCAS activation."
As Boeing whistleblowers—who claim they've been retaliated against—and outside aviation safety experts revealed what consumer safety advocate Ralph Nader described as "serial criminal negligence" in the company's handling of the crisis, public pressure urging the government to ground all 737 MAX planes increased. Then-Republican U.S. President Donald Trump finally did so on March 13, 2019 amid a worldwide wave of groundings that lasted until December 2020 in the United States and longer in some countries.
Yet problems persisted. Earlier this year, a door plug flew off a 737 MAX 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, injuring passengers and forcing an emergency landing. The incident also prompted a temporary MAX 9 grounding and a DOJ criminal probe. The FAA found "multiple instances" in which Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems—a parts supplier—"allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements." The agency also noted "noncompliance issues in Boeing's manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control."
Last week, relatives of the 737 MAX 8 crash victims urged federal prosecutors to file criminal charges against Boeing and fine the company $25 billion.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)—a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general—said last week at a hearing on Boeing's broken safety culture that "the evidence is near-overwhelming to justify" DOJ prosecution.
"Boeing needs to stop thinking about the next earnings call and start thinking about the next generation," Blumenthal said, echoing allegations that the company prioritizes profit over safety.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said at the hearing that he is "proud of every action" his company has taken in response to the 737 MAX safety crisis. Calhoun announced in March that he would step down as CEO at the end of the year—a move critics called insufficient if there is no criminal accountability.
Monday's reporting followed news that two NASA astronauts who left Earth aboard Boeing's
Starliner are stranded on the International Space Station after engineers found numerous problems with the reusable capsule. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week aboard the ISS. This is the third time their return home has been delayed. The Starliner is docked to the ISS' Harmony module and has just 45 days of docking time left before the window for a safe return closes.
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