SEATTLE — After several rounds of layoffs at several federal government departments and agencies, veterans terminated from the Veteran Affairs Office are concerned their removal from the job will affect the department’s ability to serve current and former service members.
1,000 vets were laid off, saving $98 million, according to Secretary of the VA. In an interview Friday, Secretary Doug Collins claimed the cuts would not impact veterans’ benefits. But the people who actually do the work say it’s hard to see how that is possible.
“I had gotten the termination email, but I’m like, there’s work that’s got to be done, so I’m going to continue working,” said Raphael Garcia, an army veteran who served for 7 years. “I’m probably getting text messages right now with my coworkers asking me how to do something.”
Raphael was working Friday when he was terminated, though he continued to work. On Tuesday this week, he stopped by to drop off equipment and help coworkers do the work he is typically responsible for.
His job was to help process claims for benefits and help those who had to leave the military for medical reasons get the care they needed once leaving the Armed Forces. His dedication to working through stems from a delay in care he experienced when he left the military.
“I had some tears in my shoulders, I wasn’t able to get seen medically because of [delays],” Garcia said.
Dominic Weldon and Robert Noyes were doing similar work for the VA, helping to ensure veterans didn’t have to worry about navigating their health insurance and benefits.
“Serving our veterans through the VA is the path that I chose, but now that seems to be the end of the road,” Noyes said.
He served for 30 years as a Marine. The VA was his first job transitioning out of the military.
“I’ve put a lot of work in, my own heart and soul into what I was doing. I believe in putting forth your best effort, taking care of people. It’s one of the things I think that was helping me just do my job as good as I was doing it,” Noyes said.
Weldon, a 12-year vet of the Air Force, sought out a job in tech before he realized the industry wasn’t for him. He had been helping veterans with benefits in classes in college and felt it to be a calling.
“I just want to give back to the veterans the same level of respect that I received, and so to lose that, it makes me angry. I’m upset,” Weldon said.
When Jessica Mason caught wind of the layoffs going through on Thursday, through a group chat with Noyes, she started to fear what might happen to her job. She applied for the deferred resignation program. Noyes helped push the paperwork through after his work day ended on the day he received his termination.
“The dominoes started falling. I cried, I was like, ‘This can’t be happening to my team,’ because I onboarded them,” Mason said of Dominic, Raphael, and Robert, “I feel nauseous somedays. When you wake up and all you see on your phone is the next thing that’s been done, not just to veterans but to Americans in general.”
Mason’s husband is still employed in the VA. She says he’s had to take on extra cases that were being handled by other employees. All four of these vets had gotten a nearly identical letter, though it appeared more policy citations were made the later the letters were sent out. They all included the same reason for their termination: “Based on your performance.”
All of them had high, if not the highest, reviews on the year-end performance review. Raphael was up for a promotion for a job in which he was already performing the duties.
“Going from having a promotion to then being terminated. What the heck,” Raphael said.
It makes them all struggle to see what the point is and how this will benefit their fellow service members. Weldon said he wouldn’t even mind the cuts if there’s a means to this end.
“They said they’re saving $98 million firing a thousand probationary employees. I would just like to challenge [Collins] and those on the [Department of Government Efficiency] team to just show us: How is this money being implemented to better serve veterans? If they can prove that, I’ll take the termination with a smile and walk away.”
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