WASHINGTON – Today during a hearing in the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) pressed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) acting Chief Medical Officer, Thomas O’Toole, MD, about the risk to veterans’ care from the Trump Administration’s plan to fire 80,000 employees from the VA – nearly one in five employees. Dr. O’Toole admitted that he has not seen any analysis of how these mass firings would affect veterans’ care, revealing a troubling lack of thought behind a plan that could jeopardize the ability of veterans across the country to receive the health care, support, and benefits that they have earned and deserve.
To watch Senator Hassan’s hearing questions, click here.
Senator Hassan began by explaining how she has been asking VA officials and nominees if they can guarantee that the Trump Administration’s plan to fire 80,000 VA employees will not result in longer wait times for veterans to get appointments and receive care.
Senator Hassan asked Dr. O’Toole point-blank: “Have you seen or been provided with any analysis as to how firing 80,000 VA employees might affect veterans’ care?” Dr. O’Toole responded, “I have not.” When Senator Hassan asked if he had been directed to perform or oversee any analysis on the cuts and the impact to care, he did not answer that he had.
“I continue to be concerned, then, about the Trump Administration’s policies of hiring freezes, firings, and general disruption,” concluded Senator Hassan. “It’s really difficult to see how the chaos that is churning is going to help recruit and retain mental health professionals that our veterans really deserve access to.”
Senator Hassan had previously pressed Mark Engelbaum, a top VA official, to answer questions about the firings, but he refused to commit that the employee terminations would not delay or negatively impact care for veterans.
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