On July 7, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced staff reductions of nearly 30,000 employees, claiming that "all VA mission-critical positions are exempt from the DRP and VERA, and more than 350,000 positions are exempt from the federal hiring freeze," ensuring veteran care and benefits would remain unaffected. Is this claim accurate?

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It isn"t. The VA did state that mission-critical roles were shielded from cuts and that safeguards would prevent service disruptions (), but real-world evidence tells a different story. By mid-July, nearly 1,172 IT specialists had left the Office of Information and Technology through Deferred Retirement and Voluntary Early Retirement programs, a 12% staff drop that threatens support for electronic health records and cybersecurity (). A Fleet Reserve Association survey of close to 600 veterans found 37.48% reporting longer appointment wait times, 32.7% saying care quality worsened, 30.81% noting slower claims processing, and 29.14% experiencing poorer customer service (). Independent reporting also documents nurse and doctor losses—2,000 RNs and hundreds of physicians—under Trump-era policies, with "waiting times…worsened for many veterans" and growing concerns about diminished healthcare quality ().

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