Executive leadership from the benefits, health care, memorial and appeals arms of the department share how their work is continuing amid federal hiring freeze and job terminations.
Like the majority of the federal government workforce, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been impacted by presidential executive orders that have terminated employees, created a hiring freeze or reduced future positions through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Deferred Resignation Program.
But on Feb. 24, members of The American Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Commission were able to hear first-hand from VA leadership about how those changes are directly affecting the department’s mission of health care and benefits delivery to millions of veterans.
During a panel discussion that took place during the Legion’s Washington Conference, Legion Family members heard from VA Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) Vice Chairman Kenneth Arnold, Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald E. Walters, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Clinical Services Dr. Erica Scavella and Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits Michael Frueh.
The panel was moderated by American Legion Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Director Cole Lyle, who asked each panelist how their work was being impacted. All four had similar thoughts.
“With each of these executive orders that have come out, we have had an opportunity to look at different positions that should be exempted,” Scavella said. “We have exempted over 300,000 positions across the Veterans Health Administration to make sure we are able to keep true on our promise to deliver timely and high-quality health care to the veterans that we serve. We are very happy that we’ve had that opportunity, and we want to make sure that as issues do arise, anything that we may have overseen, we’re asking our employees, our veterans to come forward and let us know so we can take the opportunity to review that and see if we need to add that to the list of exemptions.”
Frueh said VBA “took a thoughtful approach to the executive orders, rather than ready, aim, fire. We wanted to evaluate what it’s impact could be. We looked at who it is at the point … of delivering access to care and benefits through service-connected disabilities, or any other benefits that we have, and we exempted them from the hiring freeze or the deferred resignation program. We wanted to make sure we could keep delivering on it.”
Arnold praised both Congress and the new administration for their support of BVA’s efforts. “Essentially, we’ve been exempted for almost all of our employees. We haven’t lost a single attorney who was probationary, and we had 150-plus of those who we hired in the last year. Not a single judge,” he said. “Really, the proof is in the pudding with this secretary, in terms of the commitment to not having any degradation to our mission delivery. For three consecutive weeks now, 92-year records in the number of decisions we’ve been pumping out. More than 600 a day. That’s a direct result in Congress’ investment and continued commitment from the executive branch, both the president and the secretary.”
It's similar at the National Cemetery Administration, which Walters said, “is equally committed to ensure that the recent changes do not impact our ability to deliver on our core mission of providing burial and memorial benefits to veterans and eligible family members. We had 15 occupations that were exempted from the deferred resignation program, as well as the hiring freeze. All of these positions are directly associated with interfacing with veterans and their families at the cemetery in the field or maintaining cemeteries as national shrines. And if we need to ask for some additional consideration, there is a process to do that to exempt further employees, and we’re evaluating that on a day-to-day basis.”
Lyle also asked how each arm of VA is addressing what is a changing, more complex veteran population. “When it comes to medicine, if you’re not innovating, if you’re not doing research, if you’re not trying to figure out what should be done, what can be done to improve the care we’re providing, then you’re not doing it right,” Scavella said. “Innovation is at the forefront of what we’re doing. We’re a teaching organization. We teach most physicians who train in this country, as well as nurses and other health professionals. It’s really important for us that we are looking at what is the newest, most innovative thing to do. We do that largely in partnership with academic affiliates.”
Arnold used how BVA hearings are now mostly conducted as an example of how his agency has adapted to change. He said that prior to passage of the VA Tele-Hearing Modernization Act in 2020, 79 percent of BVA hearings were not done in a video or virtual setting.
“In most cases the veteran had to travel in some way, shape or form,” Arnold said. “When we watched the virtual tele-hearing technology at the start of COVID, it was a little rocky because we were getting used to the technologies. But we got to the point where this last year, 99.7 percent of all hearings that we hold, 20,000-30,000 a year, are held in virtual video technology, which is incredible.”
VBA also has needed to adapt, especially with the enacting of the PACT Act – the largest expansion of veterans benefits in a generation – in 2022.
It’s passage “exceeded our wildest imagination for veterans knocking on the door,” Frueh said. “You guys did great job of getting people to come in. All of other outreach we did resulted in 5 million claims and (intents to file) in a one-year period during year after the PACT Act (becoming law). The record-setting year the year before COVID was about 1.9 million claims in the door.
“While (claims) are still really high, production is insane. We adjudicated our 1 millionth claim last week already in February, which is weeks ahead of what we did last year, which was a record last year. We’re doing 10,000 or 11,000 claims a day, and last week we hit 12,000 claims in a single day.”
Frueh said the success in letting veterans know about their potential eligibility for benefits through the PACT Act is proof that VA can successfully reach out to the veteran population. He expressed that after Lyle asked what the department could do to reach the half of the U.S. veteran population not using VA health care or benefits.
“One thing we learned a lot (from the PACT Act) is we can really impact the amount of awareness in the veteran population through the unprecedented outreach and awareness campaigns we did,” Frueh said. “I would argue the modern veteran leaving service today is more connected to what they can get then at any other time in history. I think it’s the older generation we really need to find a way to reach.
“We’re doing a lot of things … where veterans are. Benefits fairs, lots of claims clinics, not just here in D.C., not just by our Regional Offices. We’re working with VHA in all parts of all states to reach rural veterans … veterans in areas that we don’t normally see. Our goal is to make sure every veteran is aware of the benefits that they’ve earned.”
Nearing the end of the discussion, Lyle brought up the Legion’s Be the One veteran suicide prevention mission and asked Scavella what VHA could be doing better with it comes to combatting veteran suicide, which averages around 17.6 per day.
“We want to make sure that we are sharing the message, sharing the tools to hopefully help our veterans … especially during times of distress, despair, and hopefully put the distance between the thought and the action,” she said. “We’re using a lot of things, including counseling through grant programs, as well as other tools to make sure we’re asking veterans to keep their firearms locked. We can continue to hear from veterans about what is working, what is not working, what groups are being more affected by suicidal thoughts.”
- Washington Conference