An unknown number of Department of Veterans Affairs employees at the department's suicide crisis line and workers who manned the phones and completed administrative tasks for Vet Centers were among those fired last week in a purge of the federal government workforce.
More than 2% of the VA's probationary workforce was dismissed effective immediately last week, with VA officials saying they were not in mission-critical positions.
But according to media reports, congressional lawmakers and union officials, several were employees of the Veterans Crisis Line, which provides support and services to suicidal veterans.
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At least two crisis line employees who were fired were told Wednesday they would be reinstated, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who intervened on their behalf. But they had not been given access to their work accounts as of Wednesday afternoon, she added.
"These folks, because they had a very vital job function, should never have been laid off," Duckworth said in a call with reporters Wednesday.
One hotline worker, whose name was redacted in a widely circulated social media post that has been authenticated by Military.com, said she had worked for the federal government for nine years before going to work at the crisis line.
The employee, who also serves in the Air National Guard, was 12 days away from the end of her one-year probationary period when she was fired.
"I am absolutely devastated. ... Nobody, not even leadership, had any idea this was coming," she wrote.
The VA has roughly 450,000 employees, most of whom were exempt from a federal hiring freeze announced Jan. 20 or who did not qualify for the deferred resignation offer issued by the Office of Personnel Management on Jan. 28 because their jobs are considered essential to supporting the nation's veterans.
The federal government has roughly 2.4 million workers, including 220,000 probationary employees, mostly new hires or those who have worked for the government and transferred to a new department or were promoted, resetting their probationary status.
In addition to the VA, federal agencies that have fired probationary workers include the Department of Agriculture; Department of Education; General Services Administration; Office of Personnel Management; Small Business Administration; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Nuclear Security Administration; and more.
The exact number of probationary workers who have lost their jobs has not been announced. The deadline for agencies to report the number of probationary workers they had let go was Tuesday evening.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Wednesday that the cuts not only were affecting veterans, who make up one-third of the federal workforce, but services to veterans within the VA.
According to Blumenthal, VA employees are reporting effects that include closures of operating rooms, reductions in the number of available intensive care unit beds, and cuts to inpatient mental health facilities.
A veteran told a Norfolk, Virginia, television station that her mammogram appointment was canceled as a result of staffing shortages immediately following the layoffs.
The Hampton VA Medical Center has suffered from staffing shortages for years, according to the outlet, WTKR, but the veteran said the VA should be supporting veterans services, not taking them away in an effort to save money.
"It's one thing to save the money, but if your people are going to suffer, is it really going to benefit them?" asked Army veteran Valerie Jackson, who added that she was not offered another mammogram appointment until this summer.
In a statement following the layoffs, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the move would save $98 million -- money that would be invested in veteran care.
"This was a tough decision, but ultimately it's the right call to better support the veterans, families, caregivers and survivors the department exists to serve," Collins said.
A veteran who lost his job at the VA despite having outstanding performance reviews told Military.com on Wednesday that he had planned to spend his career as a civil servant and specifically wanted to work at the VA to help veterans -- "service after service," he called it.
"I still want to be a federal employee. ... It really brought a lot of joy, especially working for veterans and Veterans Affairs," he said during an interview.
Blumenthal pledged to create an appeals process for fired employees and said the established process has been compromised because Collins was named the head of both the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics, in addition to his responsibilities at the VA, after President Donald Trump fired the leaders of those offices.
"It's a clear conflict of interest and denies VA employees any effective right of appeal, so we're going to stand up for them," Blumenthal said in a call Wednesday with reporters.
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