Veterans Affairs on Track to Cut 30,000 Staff by September, Drops Plan for Mass Layoff

The VA has abandoned earlier plans to cut some 84,000 employees through involuntary layoffs.

People walk past the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters, a block from the White House, in Washington on March 6, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will shed 30,000 employees by the end of September through attrition, the agency said on Monday, reversing course from earlier plans to cut more than twice that number with involuntary layoffs.

The VA said it is on track to meet its revised workforce reduction goal by the end of the current fiscal year, thereby “eliminating the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force (RIF).”