The Department of Veterans Affairs is officially lifting a hiring freeze on its health care workforce, after shedding tens of thousands of positions last year.

But the VA, which saw the first-ever workforce net decrease, is unlikely to hire its way to a higher headcount than what it currently has.

A report from Democrats on the Senate VA Committee released Thursday finds VA facilities are still operating “within strict staffing caps.”

“Facility leadership in the field are still reporting denials and severe delays in hiring approvals for all positions from clinical staff to custodians to claims processors,” lawmakers wrote.

The report claims the VA lost more than 40,000 employees last year, and that 88% of them worked in health care. About 10,000 of those employees worked in frontline positions that the department has struggled to fill.

VA workforce data shows the department saw a net decrease of 3,000 registered nurses last year, a net decrease of 1,000 physicians and a net decrease of 1,550 appointment schedulers.

In a typical year, the VA’s workforce sees a net gain of about 10,000 employees. But under the Trump administration, the VA sought to eliminate 30,000 positions through attrition by the end of fiscal 2025. The department previously envisioned cutting 83,000 jobs in part through layoffs.

VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz disputed several of the report’s findings. He said the VA achieved its headcount reduction goal of 30,000 employees, but didn’t lose 40,000 employees, as Senate Democrats claim. The VA also disputes the report’s claims that veterans, in some cases, are seeing longer wait times for VA mental health care appointments. 

Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told reporters in a call that the report shows a “diminished” VA that is unable to keep up with the needs of veterans.

“The loss of talent is so deeply regrettable, and the results are basically longer wait times,” Blumenthal said.

Kasperowicz said in a statement that, “while Blumenthal stages political theater, VA is making major improvements for veterans under President Trump.”

The VA fired about 2,400 probationary employees last year, but largely reduced its workforce through voluntary separation incentives.

VA workforce data shows the department made about 21,000 hires last year, offsetting the total impact of these workforce cuts.  The latest data from the Office of Personnel Management shows the VA saw a net reduction of more than 27,000 positions in 2025.

But Blumenthal said these new hires have done little to improve the VA’s capacity.

“They are not the same skilled people as have been either fired or lost because of the toxic environment that’s been created in many areas of the VA,” he said.

 

VA workforce data shows the department made about 21,000 hires last year, offsetting the total impact of these workforce cuts.  The latest data from the Office of Personnel Management shows the VA saw a net reduction of more than 27,000 positions in 2025 (Source: OPM)In a memo last week, VA Under Secretary for Health John Bartrum told department leaders that “all hiring freeze restrictions” still in place at the Veterans Health Administration have been lifted.

Bartrum wrote in the memo that each Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) “has been allocated a baseline number of positions calculated on their budgeted FTE plus anticipated needs for growth,” and that requests to exceed that headcount must be approved by the VA Strategic Hiring Committee.

“Leaders and managers must manage operational needs within their cumulative full-time equivalent (FTE) budget and position thresholds,” Bartrum wrote.

The report claims veterans are seeing longer wait times for mental health care appointments. In early January, new-patient wait times for individual mental health care appointments in 14 states exceeded 40 days — twice the wait time threshold that allows veterans to seek treatment outside the VA’s health care network. Those states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Virginia. According to the report, the national mean for new patients to sign up for individual mental health care appointments is 35 days.

However, Kasperowicz said VA data shows wait times for mental health care were under six days for established patients, and 19 days for new patients. 

The VA eased requirements for veterans to seek care from non-VA “community care” last year, and has increased spending on community care. The department is embarking on a $1 trillion next-generation community care contract, one of the largest government contracts in U.S. history.

House VA Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said in a hearing Thursday that the contract, “if done properly,” would give the VA “unprecedented flexibility” to award contract and task orders that would lead to better health care outcomes for veterans.

In their report, Senate VA Committee Democrats found the VA last year cancelled about 2,000 contracts and let another 14,000 expire without plans to renew or replace those services.

VA Secretary Doug Collins has repeatedly defended his plans for a smaller workforce. He told lawmakers last May that increased staffing hasn’t always led to better outcomes for veterans.

Last year, the department decreased its backlog of benefits claims by nearly 60% despite a net decrease of about 2,000 VA claims processors.

Kayla Williams, a former VA assistant secretary and a senior advisor for the Vet Voice Foundation, said the department reduced the initial claims backlog, but has grown the volume of claims requiring higher-level review.

“These actions were never about efficiency or cost savings,” Williams said.

The VA anticipated a spike in the backlog after Congress passed the PACT Act, making more veterans eligible for VA health care and benefits, because they were exposed to toxic substances during their military service.

Lindsay Church, the executive director of Minority Veterans of America, said 1.2 million veterans have lost their VA providers under the Trump administration.

“Clinics can’t keep care teams staffed. Appointments are being canceled or delayed, and veterans who rely on consistent, trauma-informed care are being forced into instability and pressured into community care. Mental health access, which has always been a crisis for our community for decades, has deteriorated rapidly,” Church said.

Mary Jean Burke, the first executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees National VA Council, said that by the end of 2026, most VA facilities are on track to lose about 2-5% of their psychologists — and that locations, including Seattle and Buffalo, are on track to see “double-digit” attrition.

Burke said VA health care employees have left because the VA has slashed jobs, stripped away remote work and telework, and brought staff back into “overcrowded” spaces.

“These punishing policies haven’t just lowered morale, they end up compromising the quality of care we provide,” Burke said.

Collins is scheduled to testify before the Senate VA Committee next Wednesday, in a hearing about the department’s ongoing reorganization efforts.

The post VA officially lifts hiring freeze, but staffing caps still in place for shrinking workforce first appeared on Federal News Network.

© AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

How are high impact service providers driving digital excellence across government?

Federal agencies designated as HISPs are leading the charge to deliver seamless, secure and human-centered services. Our new Federal News Network Expert Edition brings together insights from leaders who are shaping the future of customer experience in government.

Get tips and insights from:

• Donald Bauer, former chief technology officer, Global Talent Management, State Department
• Stan Kowalski, director of organizational excellence and strategic delivery, International Trade Administration
• James McCament, chief digital transformation officer, Customs and Border Protection
• Barbara Morton, deputy chief veterans experience officer, Department of Veterans Affairs
• Jonathan Alboum, federal chief technology officer, ServiceNow
• Steven Boberski, public sector chief technology officer, Genesys
• Amanda Chavez, vice president of strategy, Qualtrics
• Jake Dempsey, CEO and co-founder, Project Broadcast
• Sean Hetherington, director of federal civilian, Adobe
• Matt Mandrgoc, head of U.S. public sector, Zoom
• Angy Peterson, vice president of experience services, Granicus

Explore how these leaders are leveraging AI, data and design thinking to simplify service delivery, scale personalization and build trust with the public.

Read the full e-book now!

The post Expert Edition: Reimagining service: How HISPs lead the digital charge sponsored by Carahsoft first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Federal News Network

Nicholas Moore pleaded guilty to stealing victims’ information from the Supreme Court and other federal government agencies, and then posting it on his Instagram @ihackthegovernment.

Interview transcript:

Rep. Lou Correa My priority is taking care of those who fought and sacrificed so much for this country’s freedom. It’s veterans. Every day, 20 to 40 veterans take their own lives here in the United States. One is too many, let alone up to 40 a day. Trying to find solutions, trying to find cures, therapies for veterans. And in my opinion, everything I’ve seen, this is a cure, not only a treatment, but a cure: Psychedelics cure veterans, and that’s not coming from Lou, but rather my discussions with veterans. But not only is it just having this medicine there, it’s really a process. It’s making sure that we have experts who know what they’re doing when they treat veterans. Ibogaine, one of the psychedelics that’s widely used right now, is a very powerful medication, very powerful drug from Africa. If you don’t have people that know what they’re doing, we could have people injured or killed, lose their lives when they’re being through treatment. So what we want to do, what I want to with this legislation, is prepare, plow the field, so that when we can administer these medicines for our veterans, it’s done by people who are experts and who know what their doing.

Terry Gerton Congressman Bergman, you’ve seen the effects of PTSD up close in your own service in the Marine Corps. What is it about this legislation that would address the veteran mental health crisis in a way that current VA programs don’t?

Rep. Jack Bergman Well, you know, when it comes to our job as legislators, to compliment what Lou said, we’re here as elected representatives, to make sure we do the right things for all the American people, but especially focused here on veterans. And it’s our role as Congress to provide the guidelines and the guardrails, and in some cases, the money to enable the good research that in some small ways is being done, but we need more of it. And we need to bolster the quality of the research, but also bolster the confidence by risk-averse bureaucracies here. And bureaucracies aren’t bad, but risk aversion is one of the challenges that we have. If we’re going to send money for a program or a project, or in this case, research into alternative therapies for veterans, we need the researchers to go after it and feel that we’ve got their back so they can turn out the results that’ll lead to therapies that’ll help the veterans lead a more proactive, full life.

Rep. Lou Correa And Jack, not only do we want that research, we also want a deadline. We want to make sure people move on this stuff. Think about the situation in the United States. Sixty, 70 years of a war on drugs. It’s very hard for people to start thinking that things like psychedelics can actually be a treatment, a medicine for PTSD, a medicine for mental health, a medicine for alcoholism and a medicine to treat drug addiction. It’s very hard, it’s contradictory, and what we’ve got to do is change, like Jack said, that bureaucratic thinking. And it’s not easy, but we’ve got to do it.

Terry Gerton So, Congressman Correa, can you walk us through the core provisions of this bill? What would these centers of excellence look like and how would they operate within the VA system?

Rep. Lou Correa We want to keep it as flexible as possible, but the goal here is to make sure that these centers of excellence train people, have trained individuals who actually know how to implement these new treatments, these new medications, these new medicines. I’ve gone to Mexico a number of times. I’ve seen this treatment implemented. It’s not done in a back room somewhere. It’s done in a hospital setting. You have emergency room technicians there. You have the emergency room nurses prepared in the event something doesn’t go as planned. I’ve also talked to veterans who have gone through this treatment and come out very well. And a couple have said, almost cost me my life. So you’ve got to make sure that you know what you’re doing. And again, I use the term plow of the field, because when the VA says you can do this, well, who’s going to actually implement it? And that’s the goal. Make sure it’s ready to go.

Terry Gerton Congressman Bergman, you addressed the risk aversion kind of inherent in our bureaucracy. This bill would establish five centers. Is that enough to overcome the risk aversion and really make a national impact?

Rep. Jack Bergman Well, I believe it’s a start because we already have a model in place. The Centers of Excellence for Traumatic Brain Injury, the four centers that were established back in the ’90s: Palo Alto, Richmond, Minneapolis and Tampa were the original four. So there’s such a thing as starting too small and starting too big. I believe that this number is right. If you could, in an ideal world, the mindset within the research centers is that it’s a leapfrog of who can do better, in a very positive way so we all learn from the successes of the others. Not just research for research, as Lou said. We want outcomes and move forward, not just continue more research. Let’s get rolling.

Rep. Lou Correa You know, I met a gentleman he was active duty, in Mexico getting treatment. Didn’t want me to know his name, anything else he said. “I just want to get cured.” And I asked him, what was the process you went through in choosing this specific clinic? He said, I just did the best I could online research. Said, I didn’t have much to go with, but I’m desperate to get cured of my addictions and stay in the military. As Jack said, we want to start — is a number too big, too small, we just have to move forward and begin to give these desperate veterans a solution, something that works in a setting that is actually medically qualified and not just guessing about where to go and how to do it.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Rep. Lou Correa, Democrat of California, and Rep. Jack Bergman, Republican of Michigan. Congressman Bergman let me come back to you. This is a bipartisan effort. What is driving the bipartisanship and how do you plan to expand the folks who sign on to this as you introduce the bill?

Rep. Jack Bergman What drives the bipartisanship, I think it’s the same in any subject you go to. It’s people like Lou and I who came here to serve our constituents, but also serve our country. And in our case, focusing now on serving our veterans. Because when you think about what we’re proposing here, if these new ways of providing therapy and helping veterans overcome those issues that they have — if it’ll work for veterans, it’ll pretty much work for the vast majority of the American population. And as someone in the military who served for more than a few years, we used to joke about, hey, as veterans, we’ve been lab rats on some somebody’s experimental table. I’m OK with that. I’m OK with that because I came to serve our country and so did Lou. So we see this as only positive, for us being an example of people working together.

Rep. Lou Correa And let me add to Jack’s comments, which are these young men and women who sign up as volunteers to defend our country, they don’t go in asking whether Democrat or Republican to serve our nation. They all serve equally and they all sacrifice and give equally. And so to me, the job of helping veterans is not Democrat or Republican, but it’s a national job, responsibility that we have to comply with.

Terry Gerton Congressman Correa, in one of your earlier comments, you mentioned the war on drugs and concern about psychedelic drugs. Have your comrades in Congress expressed any concern about that approach?

Rep. Lou Correa Not openly, but you know, when you approach people and tell them about what we’re doing … they’ll smile at you and say, yes send me more information, and that’s essentially a nice “don’t call me, I’ll call you” situation. But again, it’s very hard, and again it’s not Republicans — but it’s Republicans and Democrats that are very hesitant to move in this direction. It’s kind of shocking to me. You always think about Democrats open to this. Uh-uh, this is across the board. Both Ds and Rs with a lot of hesitation. But I ask people to focus on the veterans; 20 to 40 suicides a day is way too many. One is too many. And this is the goal, making sure we cure these veterans of what haunts them. The things, those invisible wounds they bring back from the battlefield. We can do better as a country. The solutions are there.

Terry Gerton Congressman Bergman, beyond the perhaps concern about the particular medications, are there other major hurdles that you’re anticipating the bill will need to deal with in order to translate this into real capabilities?

Rep. Jack Bergman If you don’t think there’s going to be another hurdle in life, you’re already missing something. Because there’s, you know, Murphy’s Law and a law of unintended consequences and all those things that happen naturally. And we just assume there’s going to be natural hesitance on the part, as Lou just talked about, some of our colleagues who just, they just don’t want to have to put this on their plate. For whatever reason, they’re not comfortable with it. And I get that, that’s okay. That’s why we’re partnered together to build the confidence in as many of our colleagues as possible. We’re not Cheech and Chong here. We may think we’re funny, but as my wife says, you’re not funny. Okay. Don’t try to be funny. So, but, but the point is we are two rational gentlemen who have been around a long time, seen a lot, done a lot. And we believe that the role Congress can play here is one of positivity, if you will, for veterans first, and then the rest of the population second, to live a better, fulfilling life.

Rep. Lou Correa And the second part is the big one. Think about it. This works for veterans, it cures them of these mental challenges they have. Can you imagine what it’ll do for the rest of our society? And in my opinion, when you look at homelessness, drug addiction, alcoholism — all of that starts from mental health challenges. We may have stumbled on a tremendous cure for all the above. And to me, this means we’ve got to dig deep and make sure we can do this right.

Terry Gerton Congressman Correa, you’ve got an event on Wednesday night, a Capitol Hill briefing and public discussion on this topic. It’s at the Capitol Visitor Center from 6 to 8 p.m. What do you hope to accomplish in that session?

Rep. Lou Correa I’ll take your word that I have that event. I haven’t looked beyond tomorrow. I will continue to hope with Jack, with others, that we keep pushing forward with this medication, this cure for our veterans. Again, suicides every day. I talk to veterans on a daily basis who tell me, my friend just took his own life waiting for a cure that never came. And these are sad stories. And I’m desperate to get this medication, this cure, implemented with our veterans. I know right now, not only are veterans going to Mexico, to Costa Rica, to other foreign countries to get treatment, they have to pay cash —$5,000 or $7,000 or $8,000 per cure, per session. But there are also clandestine, below-the-radar operations that are springing up in the United States. Are they good or bad? I don’t know. Veterans deserve better from us. What do I expect to accomplish on Wednesday, today and every day? Get a system in place, get a medical procedure in place to take care of our veterans.

Terry Gerton Congressman Bergman, what message do you want to make sure that your Marines and other veterans who might be listening to this and considering joining that event on Wednesday, what do you want them to know?

Rep. Jack Bergman Number one, they’re not in this alone. You’ve got people here, Lou and I and others, that are engaged, are committed, and whoever is sitting in that room on Wednesday, I would hope that they leave that room feeling more informed that there’s a certain level of honesty and integrity involved in what we’re trying to accomplish. And if nothing else, if we could light their curiosity fire to explore this more through their staff and through others, because they see the confidence that we have in making this happen and figuring out a way towards better outcomes.

Rep. Lou Correa And let me add to Jack’s comments. We’re here, we have their back. We’ve got our veterans, we’ve got their back, we want their best interest. I don’t own any stock, any of these drug companies. I’m not in the business. I’m not here to make money off this. I’m here to help our veterans. A lot of those folks are my best friends. I grew up with them. I saw, I know many of them that didn’t come back from Vietnam. I know the pain a lot of the veterans go through. I just want to make sure that as Americans, we do the right thing for our veterans.

The post Could psychedelics help stop veteran suicide? Lawmakers hope so first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Air Force/Senior Airman Karla Parra

A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs to use a single credentialing and privileging system for medical providers, which would allow clinicians to move between DoD and VA facilities without having to go through months-long approval processes.

Currently, the DoD and the VA rely on separate credentialing and privileging systems to approve their clinicians. But those approvals don’t transfer between the two agencies, forcing providers who switch facilities to restart the approval process from the beginning. The process can take several months, during which clinicians are unable to see patients, which delays access to care and leaves facilities understaffed.

The legislation, introduced by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would require DoD and VA to provide Congress with a report on the medical provider credentialing and privileging systems they currently use. The report would assess what data each system stores, how portable provider’s credentialing and privileging information is, how interoperable the systems are and where gaps or limitations exist in their interoperability. It would also require recommendations for scaling those systems with the goal of establishing a single, uniform credentialing and privileging system across both departments.

Under the bill, the Pentagon and the VA would have to jointly select a single credentialing and privileging system by January 2027 and notify Congress that the system is operational by 2028.

“Health care providers shouldn’t be hindered by bureaucratic red tape when caring for the men and women who have bravely served our nation. Our bipartisan legislation would end unnecessary duplication so that medical providers can move between the DoD and VA more quickly, ensuring service members and veterans get the high-quality care they need without delay,” Blackburn said in a statement. 

The credentialing process ensures that providers treating service members and veterans meet required qualifications. Meanwhile, privileging determines the medical services a provider can deliver based on their qualifications and experience.

Reps. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) and Susie Lee (D-Nev.) introduced a companion bill in the House titled the “Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Credentialing Integration Act of 2025.”

“This legislation is a strategic opportunity for the advancement of healthcare priorities throughout the federal sector healthcare system that strengthens workforce recruitment and retention, refines effective government health agency practices and provides for service members and veterans, all while safeguarding and better utilizing Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” Murphy said in a statement. 

It is unclear what strategy the lawmakers plan to pursue — while it’s a bipartisan effort, standalone bills often face political hurdles, and lawmakers frequently try to attach such proposals to larger legislative packages like the annual National Defense Authorization Act to increase their chances. 

The DoD only recently streamlined its privileging process, which now allows medical providers to move between military treatment facilities with minimal administrative delays. 

As of October, providers no longer have to reapply for their clinical privileges when moving within the enterprise, including across stateside and overseas military hospitals and clinics.

“Health care providers should be able to focus on their patients. With portable privileges, they can do so more quickly,” Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in a statement. “Enterprise-wide privileging is just one of many efforts to make the Military Health System more agile. Previously, our health care providers renewed their privileges every two years. With this expanded policy, we have extended the renewal window to three years to reduce their administrative load.” 

The Military Health System said the process of obtaining clinical privileges remains the same under the new policy.

The post Bipartisan bill seeks to create joint DoD–VA credentialing system first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Federal News Network