As the U.S. DOGE Service works its way through federal government agencies, cutting costs and staff in the name of fraud, waste and abuse, veterans spoke out Thursday to condemn their effects on the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Earlier this week, VA Secretary Doug Collins wrote on X that the department had found nearly $2 billion in contracts he intended to cancel and redirect to veterans healthcare and benefits — a move he temporarily suspended on Wednesday after advocacy groups and lawmakers said the cuts would negatively affect veterans’ care.
“The ready-fire-aim approach with a scatter gun is doing great damage to the federal force,” retired U.S. Army Major General Paul Eaton said during an online event with recently laid-off veterans hosted by the progressive VoteVets political action committee.
"Veteran care, benefits and beneficiaries will not be affected by VA’s recent personnel moves, which will allow us to redirect $180 million per year back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries," a VA spokesperson told Spectrum News.
About a third of the federal work force are U.S. veterans, he said. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has cut roughly 2,400 VA jobs and fired an estimated 6,000 veterans who were federal workers, according to VoteVets.
U.S. Navy veteran Dustin Conklin was one of them. He took a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in September, relocating to Illinois from Washington, D.C. In the middle of the night on Feb. 13, he said he received a work email that was blank except for an attachment that said he was fired for poor performance.
“There was nothing that ever told me I had poor performance,” said Conklin, adding that the termination will cause him to lose health insurance coverage for his anti-depressant and anxiety medications.
“It’s been defeating,” he said during Thursday’s forum. “I feel like there’s no point anymore.”
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a U.S. Army veteran and a Democrat, said she’s heard directly from veterans since the firings began who have shared their termination letters. She accused the VA secretary of either having been lied to about veteran firings or knowingly lying to the American people about protecting former members of the U.S. armed services from job and benefits cuts.
“Donald Trump now has fired more veterans than any other president in recent history,” Duckworth said. “The only reason that they’re doing this is to try to find loose change behind the couch cushions so that they can give an even bigger tax break to the rich guys they pal around with on their golf course.”
Duckworth invited “President Elon Musk” to attend Thursday’s forum, but she said he didn’t have the courage to show up, and neither did President Donald Trump.
“On the campaign trail, Trump promised to look out for veterans and service members. Obviously this was a lie,” Duckworth said.
Note: This article was updated to include the statement from the VA and to correct the spelling of Doug Collins' name.