another mass staffing purge at VA

In late November, a mental health leader at a major VA medical center learned about a directive issued to the 18 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) regional offices, known as VISNs (Veterans Integrated Service Networks). Department of Veterans Affairs’ leaders in Washington were imposing lower caps on employee positions nationwide. Directors of local VA medical centers and clinics had a month to decide which vacant positions to eliminate, and which job offers to rescind. None of these identified positions would be filled because they would be swept from organizational charts entirely. At his facility, 60 percent of the unfilled positions would be lost, including 23 in mental health.

“The past nine months have been very challenging,” they said.

This VA leader’s experience is far from an anomaly. In recent days, the VA has moved to expunge tens of thousands of critical VA jobs from its organizational chart, the most dramatic move in a year-old campaign to fundamentally shrink the VA at a time of growing need.

In a new investigation for The American Prospect, VHPI Senior Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle detail the on-the-ground consequences of this change, and how it can be stopped.

Read their full piece here.