July 30, 2025

VA cuts 1,200 IT workers while veterans use failing systems

VA terminates IT special salary rates as 12% of tech workforce leaves

🎖️Veterans💡Technology

Nearly 1,200 VA IT employees accepted voluntary separation or early retirement, reducing the IT workforce by almost 12%.

VA's fiscal 2026 budget requests $7.3 billion for IT, a $300 million decrease from current spending. The budget pauses procurement of new IT systems until VA can review existing technology infrastructure.

VA is on pace to reduce total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by end of fiscal year 2025.

Special salary rates for IT workers were terminated Oct. 4, 2025 in all 58 locality pay areas. The rates had provided a 17% average pay increase for 7,000 technology and cyber workers since 2023.

VA uses computer systems from as far back as the 1980s to manage medical equipment inventory and process benefits claims.

VA OIT requested funding for approximately 7,000 FTE employees, an 11.7% decrease from fiscal 2025.

The budget includes $182 million in 2025 transfers from IT to priority accounts supporting joint DOD-VA operations and community care.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski warned that cuts will disrupt IT modernization efforts and that VA lost significant institutional knowledge, creating major risks for system stability and cybersecurity.

🎖️Veterans💡Technology

Test Your Knowledge

According to the VA"s FY 2025 budget request submitted in March 2024, did the Office of Information and Technology project its headcount would grow from 8,382 to 8,544 employees?

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?

According to H. Rept. 118-528 accompanying H.R. 8580 – Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, how much funding was requested for the VA"s Veterans Electronic Health Record Modernization account in its FY 2025 budget?

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs press release on July 7, 2025, how many employees did the VA have on January 1, 2025, and June 1, 2025—a reduction of nearly how many positions, with how many more expected to exit by September 30, 2025?

According to the July 7, 2025 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs press release, how many total VA employees were projected to be cut by the end of fiscal year 2025 (Sept. 30, 2025)?

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People, bills, and sources

Devon Beard

VA Acting Deputy CIO

Nikki Budzinski

U.S. Representative (D-IL)

Doug Collins

VA Secretary

Mike Bost

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chair

Denis McDonough

Former VA Secretary

Donald Trump

President of the United States

What you can do

direct advocacy

Demand House Veterans Affairs Committee restore IT funding after VA eliminated 1,200 tech positions and redirected $189 million from modernization efforts

Demand adequate IT funding to maintain and modernize systems veterans depend on.