Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins accepts request to appear before Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins will come before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee for the first time since taking office to answer questions about the agency’s plans to further reduce its workforce amid a hiring freeze and the cancellation of hundreds of contracts with community agencies.
Collins accepted a request by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the committee chairman, to discuss how the VA will conduct a potential workforce reduction of up to 83,000 personnel in the summer, according to Moran’s office. A date has not been set for the hearing.
“I have requested Secretary Collins to testify before the committee, and he has agreed to do so,” Moran said. “Members of the committee will have the opportunity to question Secretary Collins on workforce changes and his plans to make the VA work better for veterans. I also expect the secretary to also be able to testify about the president’s budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The VA since January has terminated 1,400 probationary workers and implemented a hiring freeze on nonessential positions. But lawmakers only learned about plans for a second round of layoffs after a VA memo was leaked to reporters earlier this month.
The memo — from VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek — directed VA leaders to conduct sweeping job terminations with the stated goal to make the VA operate more efficiently.
Federal agencies including the VA are under order from President Donald Trump to reduce the size of their workforce as part of a restructuring of the federal government. The VA is the second-largest agency in the federal government after the Defense Department and employs more than 470,000 workers.
Last week, VA officials briefed staff from the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees about the agency’s plans for more layoffs. Collins has stated the layoffs will make the agency run more efficiently and be more responsive to the 9 million veterans it serves.
VA delivers a range of benefits and services to veterans, including health care, tuition assistance and disability compensation. But Congress must have a significant oversight role in “strategically shaping VA workforce decisions to achieve the right outcomes for veterans and their families,” Moran said at a hearing on March 11, when he informed lawmakers about the invitation for the VA secretary to meet with the committee.
Veterans make up about 30% of the federal workforce.
Democratic senators also announced plans Monday to hold their own series of unofficial “shadow hearings” that will look at the impact of the layoffs. Collins was invited to the first shadow hearing on April 2, but he is not expected to attend, lawmakers said.
Democratic lawmakers have largely opposed the cuts to staff and programs at the VA and other agencies.