(WAND) — Amid a surge of Department of Veterans Affairs layoffs across the country, the organization VoteVets held a national hall to discuss the negative effects that federal downsizing by the Department of Government Efficiency have imposed on United States veterans.
U.S. Representative Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War Army National Guard combat veteran, said that the layoffs will have a widespread and lasting effect.
“Trump and Musk have slashed roughly 2400 Department of Veterans Affairs jobs, a decision that won’t make things more efficient like they claim, but will actually lead to longer wait times, more backlog and more chaos for our veterans. They’ve also launched a wider purge of federal workers firing. In total, an estimated 6000 veterans who are federal workers, including the folks behind the Veterans Crisis Hotline,” said Duckworth.
With the layoffs, there are already reported shortages in access to resources given to veterans…