Fired workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs joined Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, for a virtual news conference to discuss the impacts of layoffs at the VA, as well as a hiring freeze and contract cancellations by the agency. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Calls to NineLine Veteran Services in Washington state have been surging from veterans who lost their federal jobs or who fear they are next to be terminated in mass firings ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Army veteran Shawn Durnen, president of the nonprofit, said panicked veterans worried about paying their bills and finding jobs after sudden terminations are flooding the organization, which assists in finding housing and employment for veterans transitioning to civilian life.
“Many of these individuals have dedicated their lives to public service” by first serving in the military and then entering careers in public service with the federal government, said Durnen, who served from 2006-2010, including a deployment to Iraq.
He and three fired workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs joined Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Tuesday for a virtual news conference to discuss the impacts of layoffs at the VA, as well as a hiring freeze and contract cancellations by the agency. Durnen and the fired workers — all living in Washington — shared firsthand accounts of the impacts.
“I was shocked and deeply disappointed when I received an email on Monday, Feb. 24, at 1:56 p.m., notifying me of my immediate removal from my position. I was left with the task of informing my supervisor, my section chief and my HR of this decision,” said Future Zhou, an Army veteran terminated from her probationary job as VA inventory manager.
Zhou, Christian Helfrich, who was dismissed from his post as a research investigator at VA Puget Sound Health Care, and Dan Foster, an Army veteran whose VA contract was canceled for developing materials for a transition assistance program in Olympia, Wash., said they are hearing from former colleagues that the job cuts and contract cancellations are delaying and interrupting delivery of services and benefits to veterans.
“What’s going on right now isn’t a two-way door where you can tear down the VA and then see what happens, and if you don’t like it, go back to the way it was. This is a one-way door — if we tear it down now, it is going to take years or decades to build back,” Helfrich said.
Murray, vice chairwoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she held the virtual news conference because she thought it is important that the voices of the fired workers are heard.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., attends a Senate Budget Committee meeting on Feb. 12, 2025. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Murray also blasted Trump’s and Elon Musk’s efforts to decrease the VA workforce, which includes many veterans. She described the fired workers as losing employment “through no fault of their own and with zero justification.”
Other Democratic lawmakers also lodged protests this week over the purge of veterans from the VA and other federal jobs. They submitted bills to give veterans their jobs back and fired off an angry letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins.
Murray’s news conference Tuesday was held 24 hours after two bills were introduced by Democratic senators to reinstate fired veterans to their federal jobs.
The Putting Veterans First Act, sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would restore federal jobs to veterans, their military spouses and survivors, and provide them with back pay and benefits.
It would stop Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing veterans’ data and it would end the VA’s hiring freeze at clinics and hospitals where vacancies are contributing to higher costs for health care.
The Protect Veterans Jobs Act, led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, would reinstate veterans displaced from jobs across the federal government and require quarterly reports from the Trump administration documenting the progress. It is a companion bill to House legislation from Rep. Derek Tran, D-Calif.
More than 6,000 veterans have lost their jobs in firings that started in February and are expected to continue through the summer.
More than two dozen Democratic senators signed a letter Monday to Collins that condemned a plan by the Trump administration to terminate another 80,000 VA workers by August.
The senators wrote in the letter that many of the workers targeted for dismissal are veterans.
“Since VA’s solemn mission is to serve veterans and put them first, we would like to see evidence of how these cuts will impact the 20,000 veterans — making up 25% of the approximately 80,000 employees to be cut — you plan to terminate, as well as the millions of veterans they served,” the senators wrote.
About 30% of federal employees are veterans. Military veterans receive hiring preference for federal jobs, which means they are giving priority for jobs over non-veteran applicants.
“Veterans preference gets you in the door, but it does not get you a job,” said Zhou, who was fired from her hospital job directing purchases and distribution of medical supplies.
Zhou was promoted to inventory manager in 2024 and was on probation in her new role when she was fired.
“We are slamming the door on veterans in need,” Murray said. “What Trump and Musk are doing here is disrespectful, it’s unpatriotic, and it’s ungrateful.”
