The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue to fill thousands of vacancies in its health care workforce despite a federal hiring freeze ordered by President Donald Trump, the VA said Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (Stars and Stripes)
The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue to fill thousands of vacancies in its health care workforce despite a federal hiring freeze ordered by President Donald Trump, the VA said Thursday.
The VA “will always do what is necessary to provide America’s veterans with the benefits and services they have earned,” said Morgan Ackley, spokeswoman for the agency.
The exemption to the executive order that Trump signed Monday will keep the agency searching for qualified candidates to fill openings for nurses, therapists, pharmacists, medical support staff and outreach program specialists, according to a list of 300,000 exempt jobs provided by the VA.
There were roughly 40,000 vacancies at the VA at the end of 2024, according to a quarterly report on staffing within the agency. That number includes jobs that are not listed as part of the exemption.
About 400,000 people work for the VA, which has a budget of $369 billion to provide 18 million veterans with health care, disability compensation and other benefits.
Trump’s order carved out an exemption for military personnel and jobs related to public safety. Officials spent the past few days getting further guidance on what it meant for veterans’ services, the VA said.
Doug Collins, Trump’s nominee to run the VA, testified Tuesday before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and heard concerns about the freeze from Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Angus King, I-Maine.
“I can’t complain about a hiring freeze,” King said. “The hiring freeze should not apply to direct care workers if my Togus [VA Medical Center] in Maine needs a cardiologist and it’s been open for a couple of months because they’re hard to find, this hiring freeze should not prohibit them from continuing to search for and, if they can find a cardiologist, to sign them up.”
Collins responded he was still evaluating how the hold on new hires would affect the VA, but pledged to “always fight for making sure our veterans are getting the care in the proper way that they need.”
The committee approved Collins’ nomination to be the next VA secretary on Thursday and the full Senate is expected to vote on it next week.
