The Department of Veterans Affairs gutted its workforce. Lawmakers say veterans are now paying the price.

• A Democratic congressional report criticizes the Department of Veterans Affairs for major healthcare cuts.
• The VA lost over 40,000 workers in 2025, impacting mental health and appointment access, the report says.
• A VA spokesperson called the report "political theater" after it raised concerns.

A scathing report released this week by Democratic congressional staff sharply criticized the Department of Veterans Affairs, accusing the agency of dramatically reducing its healthcare capacity after slashing tens of thousands of jobs in the past fiscal year.

The report, issued by Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Democrats, argues that the sweeping overhaul of the VA has weakened its ability to deliver care.

The VA lost more than 40,000 employees in fiscal year 2025, marking the department's first net workforce decline in years, the report said; early planned cuts targeted over 80,000 jobs. Nearly 90% of those losses, it continued, came from healthcare roles, including physicians, nurses, mental health providers, and appointment schedulers.

Democratic staffers attribute the workforce hemorrhage to last year's dramatic DOGE-driven cuts — a federal hiring freeze, firings of probationary employees, deferred resignation and early retirement programs, and new staffing caps that limited the department's ability to backfill vacancies. The report maintains that those changes accelerated departures among clinicians and support staff.

"In a typical year, VA's workforce gains a net of at least 10,000 employees. Under the first year of Trump, Collins, and Musk, the workforce has experienced a net loss three times that number," the report said, referring to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk.

Veterans' trust in the VA exceeded 80% in 2024, according to the report, a marked increase over the preceding decade. More veterans than ever have begun using VA healthcare for their needs, the report added. The system had managed to decrease wait times after years of criticism from veterans — in 2016, some veterans were waiting over 100 days to see a medical provider. That same year, veterans' reported trust in the VA was just 25%.

The report includes internal data showing net losses among medical providers and administrators, and insight from veterans.

"Appointments are often canceled or rebooked with little to no notice," one Maryland veteran said. Others warned that an already strained civilian health system, particularly for mental health care, cannot easily absorb displaced veterans as the US continues to grapple with a shortage of mental health providers in many areas.

"We desperately need more investment in the VA," another veteran said. "Too many people depend on it here." In 2024, the VA oversaw over 127.5 million health care appointments and saw the highest number of female veterans enrolling for care.

Cuts have had tangible effects on care delivery, the report said. Wait times for new mental health appointments currently average 35 days, and in many states over 40 days, more than double the VA's threshold. The report also cites facility closures, canceled therapy programs, and new limits on one-on-one mental health sessions tied to staffing shortages.

Mental health care has been particularly affected, the report says. At one VA outpatient clinic in California, seven of twelve mental health providers left the department, citing return-to-office mandates, resulting in wait times for new patients at that facility reaching more than 120 days.

Beyond staffing, the report says nearly 16,000 VA contracts were either canceled or allowed to expire, affecting services ranging from radiology and disability exams to suicide prevention programs. The VA overstated the financial savings from those cancellations, the report says, and has failed to provide Congress with a full accounting of the affected contracts.

"Due to the Trump hiring freeze, essential researchers whose terms were ending were shown the door and forced to abandon lifesaving work, and their positions were unable to be backfilled," the report said. "These actions directly damaged veterans' access to cutting-edge treatments and clinical trials, including cancer trials."

VA leadership has previously said staffing and contract changes are intended to improve efficiency and accountability and has disputed claims that care has been harmed. The report counters those assertions and argues that the changes reflect a shift away from capacity-building at a moment when veteran demand remains high.

When asked by Business Insider for comment on the report's findings, VA spokesman Peter Kasperowicz called it "political theater" and pointed to 16 VA press releases detailing improvement for veterans under President Donald Trump. Those improvements, Kasperowicz said, include opening new clinics, a decrease in benefit backlogs, terminating employee union contracts, and ending DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives.