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More than a dozen Veterans Affairs employees in Madison, including at least one disabled veteran, were reportedly fired this week as part of the latest cuts to the federal workforce championed by President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The VA Medical Center in Tomah also experienced “adjustments” in staffing, according to the area’s congressman, though it was unclear how many people were laid off. The exact number of terminations across Wisconsin’s VA medical centers is similarly unclear, but local union representatives from Madison and Milwaukee have estimated at least 20 probationary employees have been fired in the past week.
The workers who lost their jobs in Wisconsin were among 1,400 laid off by the Department of Veterans Affairs this week, bringing the total number of VA employees fired nationwide over the last month to about 2,400.
About 16 people were laid off in Madison this week, according to William Townsend, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1732 in Madison. Townsend said he believed the employees were probationary, meaning they had been in their jobs for less than a year.
Those fired included workers at the veterans hospital in Madison and at the North Central Consolidated Patient and Accounting Center, which is responsible for third-party insurance billing, Townsend said.
“We come to work every day and we are dedicated to serving veterans,” said Townsend, who identifies as a disabled veteran. “For Congress to vilify us the way they’re doing, it’s not only disrespectful to my service and my years of service to this country, but it’s also disrespectful to every man and woman that actually works for the VA.”
On Thursday, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern California District said the mass firings were likely unlawful and ordered that the Office of Personnel Management halt the firings. The decision did not order the rehiring of anyone who had already been terminated.
Tammy Baldwin seeks to protect suicide help line
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, who spearheaded the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline being recast as the three-digit number, 9-8-8, penned a letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Acting Director Charles Ezell on Friday expressing concern over the loss of staffing at the Veterans Crisis Line.
The Veterans Crisis Line supports veterans and their loved ones who have experienced a recent crisis, whether that means housing instability, the end of a relationship or the loss of a job. It’s estimated that, in the two years since the launch of 988, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered more than 2 million calls, texts and chats from veterans and their loved ones, nearly a 23% increase. It also connects veterans to ongoing supports after the conversation ends.
Baldwin urged Ezell to protect the remaining Veterans Crisis Line employees, many of whom operate from remote work arrangements. An executive order issued Jan. 20 attempts to axe remote federal workers, which is creating uncertainty and disruption among counselors.
“Due to the dedicated professional response workforce, the VCL reports an average wait time of 9 seconds,” Baldwin wrote. “We cannot risk failing our nation’s veterans by jeopardizing the continued function of this crisis support line.”
In 2022, the most recent comprehensive report, 136 Wisconsin veterans died by suicide, outpacing both the national and the Midwestern suicide death rates.
Madison VA serves an estimated 82,000 veterans
The Madison VA Medical Center serves about 82,000 veterans across 19 counties in Wisconsin and Illinois. It focuses on primary care, behavioral health treatment, suicide prevention and specialty treatments like cancer care and toxic exposure screening.
“We don’t work at the VA because of the pay. We work at the VA because we care,” Townsend said. “It’s just this anger … and the sense of being disrespected by somebody that knows nothing about what we do or even cares about what we do.”
One of the Wisconsin VA workers fired this week, who asked not to be identified because of fears of retaliation, said he is a disabled veteran who recently had a stellar performance review.
“It was such an immense burden lifted from my shoulders to get that job,” he said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.
He said his message to voters who supported Trump was “just accept that you were lied to, and start demanding that the harm that’s been done be reversed.”
“I’m disabled because of the mistake of serving this country,” he said. “I have to live with that forever.”
He was the second veteran this week who told the Journal Sentinel they were fired despite a recent glowing performance review. James Stancil, a former medical supply chain technician at Zablocki, told the Journal Sentinel Tuesday that his performance in November had been “spotless.” Still, in the email terminating their contracts, the letter cited their performances did not meet “the burden to demonstrate” further employment.
“That just really gets me. There’s one thing I don’t put up with and that is disparaging my character,” Stancil said. “I work very hard on my character. I have a big issue with that.”
DOGE pushing to eliminate ‘waste, bloat and abuse’
The terminations are part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s initiative to eliminate “waste, bloat and abuse” from the federal workforce. Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on earth, heads the department, also known as DOGE.
The deadline to undertake these large-scale reductions in force is “no later than March 13, 2025,” according to a memorandum from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget sent to the heads of executive departments and agencies Wednesday.
As part of what it’s calling the Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plans, or ARRP, executive and agency leadership are being urged to significantly reduce full-time positions by “eliminating positions that are not required.” The memorandum underscored Trump’s hiring freeze orders, noting that any new employee hire must be preempted by the termination of four employees.
“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” the memo from OMB Director Russell Vought and OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell says. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.”
A top federal government watchdog group said this week that the mass firings of probationary employees appear to be illegal and asked a specialized labor board to pause the terminations of six employees in six different federal agencies so the watchdog organization could investigate. The employees in question were fired by the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and the Office of Personnel Management.
It’s estimated that nearly 6,000 veterans have been laid off from the federal workforce overall.
Lawsuit seeks to block firings
Even before Monday, AFGE, the national union that represents more than 800,000 workers in nearly every agency of the federal and D.C. governments and includes Wisconsin VA Medical Centers, joined two other organizations, Public Citizen and State Democracy Defenders Fund, in a lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management and Ezell over DOGE-driven terminations.
The complaint, issued Feb. 19, alleges the terminations are illegal, stating that Congress, not President Donald Trump, determines federal agency responsibilities. It’s one of six lawsuits AFGE has filed thus far against the federal government.
In a joint press release, AFGE President Everett Kelley said the labor union would “not stand idly by as a secretive group of ultra-wealthy individuals with major conflicts of interest attempt to … give their own companies sweetheart government contracts while firing civil servants and dismantling the institutions designed to serve the American people.
“This fight is about fairness, accountability, and the integrity of our government. Federal employees are not the problem — they are the solution,” Kelley said. “They deserve to have their voices heard in decisions that affect their work, their agencies, and the public they serve.”
An AFGE representative in Tomah did not respond to inquiries from the Journal Sentinel, and it was not immediately clear how many workers had been laid off at the Tomah VA Medical Center.
But Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose district includes Tomah, acknowledged that there have been “adjustments” in staffing at the facility. He told the Journal Sentinel he’s been in touch with the medical center’s director and claimed the adjustments “have not resulted in a decline in the delivery of benefits and care for veterans.”
“If there is even the slightest indication of a drop in the quality or accessibility of VA services, I will immediately contact the director and Veterans Administration to address any shortcomings and ensure our veterans are receiving the care they have earned,” Van Orden said.
Joey Garrison of USA TODAY contributed.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Federal workers, including a disabled veteran, fired from Madison VA
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