The Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs refuted a warning by Democratic lawmakers that the agency is eliminating research grants, halting clinical studies and firing scientists as part of a workforce reduction across the federal government.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said Thursday during a news conference that the VA is moving to defund research grants as well as shift its popular mail-order prescription drug service to the Defense Department. The changes are part of a sweeping cost-saving move by President Donald Trump’s administration to downsize the federal government, the senators said.
But Peter Kasperowicz, the VA press secretary, disputed those statements, saying the “VA has no such plans.”
Veterans’ prescription services and research grants remain essential aspects of VA operations, Kasperowicz said in a written statement without elaborating.
The VA intends to reduce its workforce by 83,000 employees by August, according to an internal VA memo leaked this week to news outlets. Unspecified jobs will be slashed under an agency restructuring to meet Trump’s executive order for downsizing the federal government.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, demanded Thursday that VA provide an itemized list of job categories impacted in the layoffs. The VA previously denied separate statements by Duckworth and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that veterans crisis line workers who respond to callers at risk of suicide were among probationary employees dismissed in firings of 2,400 workers since February. Workers had contacted the senators’ offices.
“It is administrative malpractice. It is stupid and it is wrong,” Whitehouse said.
In response to the leaked memo, VA Secretary Doug Collins posted to social media Wednesday night that the Trump administration is making “generational changes” at the VA to make the agency more transparent and accountable to veterans.
“We’re making the department work better for veterans, their families, caregivers and supporters,” he said.
In 2024, Congress funded nearly $1 billion in VA research by scientists across the nation. The VA operates more than 100 research sites, where more than 3,600 scientists worked on clinical studies and trials. About half of the researchers are on “time-limited positions” renewed based on available research funding, according to the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations.
The organization has called for all medical care and research positions at the VA to be exempted from firings and hiring freezes.
Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, warned a reduction or elimination of VA research grants will put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage to China, which has prioritized advancements in biotechnology.
Takano also expressed concern about the future of the Million Veterans Project, a massive repository of DNA samples collected from military veterans. VA-sponsored research using veterans’ DNA has examined how military service-connected injuries and illnesses, including from exposures to toxins, impact the health of troops.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said last month that she received information from VA researchers that their clinical studies were canceled or suspended without notice by the VA.
“I’m hearing from long-time VA researchers in my home state of Washington who are right now being told to immediately stop their research and pack their bags — not because their work isn’t desperately needed, but because Trump and Elon [Musk] have decided to fire these researchers on a whim,” she said.
Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and vice chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was referring to Musk, a tech billionaire serving as Trump’s adviser in the government downsizing.
The VA exempted direct-care health workers from job terminations. But the VA also canceled 585 contracts this week with nonprofit organizations after re-evaluation of the agreements, the agency said.
The VA did not elaborate on the specific purpose or function of the contracts but said veterans’ direct services are unaffected.
But Murray said she received reports of research projects suspended in studies of mental health, addiction withdrawal, cancer treatment, burn pit exposure, prosthetics and diabetes.
“The Trump administration is right now firing researchers at VA who do lifesaving work for our veterans — research to prevent veteran suicide, build life-changing prosthetics, address opioid addiction,” she said.
At the Senate confirmation hearing for Paul Lawrence as VA deputy secretary, Murray said last month that “My office’s phones were ringing off the hook — as I assume a lot of people’s were — with really panicked calls from researchers at the VA. They had been laid off with zero justification, zero warning.”
The research the VA conducts is tailored to the needs of veterans, said Blumenthal, the top Democrat of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
“Transferring it or ending it is disastrous,” he said.
