AUSTIN (KXAN) — Some employees within the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System were dismissed amid layoffs from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month, a spokesperson confirmed to KXAN.
The spokesperson said “a small number of probationary staff” were laid off. In total, the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed it dismissed more than 1,000 employees in February as part of White House and Department of Government Efficiency efforts.
Those layoffs concentrated on “non-bargaining unit probationary employees” who served less than a year as well as those who served “less than two years in an excepted service appointment,” per the Department of Veterans Affairs announcement. Officials said there are more than 43,000 probationary employees within the department, and the layoffs excluded “mission-critical positions” or those under a collective bargaining agreement.
“The personnel moves will save the department more than $98 million per year, and VA will redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries,” the Department of Veterans Affairs said in the Feb. 13 release.
The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System wouldn’t provide specifics on the number of Texas employees impacted by the layoffs, citing the agency “cannot discuss specific personnel matters due to privacy concerns.”
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, confirmed to KXAN Monday his office is still seeking answers on the localized impact, with Doggett putting in requests at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System as well as the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. With Texas being home to nearly 1.4 million veterans, he said he fears the layoffs will lead to further delays in veterans’ service requests.
“There’s not a week that goes by that my office is not involved in working with an individual veteran on a health care problem,” Doggett said. “Before these unjustified firings that have just been announced of probationary employees, there was already a Trump hiring freeze that was preventing contracting with new cardiologists, surgeons, nurses and more. I think this is just the latest in broken promises.”
This isn’t the only federal department dismissal that has honed in on probationary employees. Last week, KXAN reported on the Federal Aviation Administration layoffs targeting probationary employees, including at least one let go from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Doggett criticized the dismissals, advocating that these employees haven’t done anything wrong but rather haven’t reached specific tenures.
“They’re not people that did anything wrong. Some of them have excelled, they just have not reached the period of time before they can become full-time employees,” he said. “Another category are people that have been at the VA for a long time and have done so well they’ve gotten a promotion, but they’re still in probationary status because of that, so we’re getting some of the best people removed for the sole reason that they’re the easiest ones to fire.”
The Central Texas VA Health Care System’s spokesperson said the dismissals “will have no negative effect on Veteran health care, benefits or other services,” but Doggett challenged that notion. He said veterans need quality care and this staff reduction will contribute to reductions in quality of care while elongating wait times for services.
“I just don’t see any efficiency in DOGE. It’s a slash and burn approach,” he said. “Efficiency means you go in and you analyze and you determine who’s doing their job and who’s not, what function might be consolidated in order to save taxpayer money. None of that is happening.”
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