February 20, 2026, 10:53 am
The Trump Administration has radically slashed the federal civilian workforce, sidestepping Congress and causing disruptions, slowdowns, and fragility in a range of critical public services that people and communities depend on. Veterans have been affected by these cuts both as members of the federal workforce and as recipients of federal health care and other benefits available to them based on their service.
The federal government has been a large employer of veterans for many decades, with veterans accounting for roughly 30 percent of all federal employees in recent years. Between September 2024 and December 2025, the number of veterans working in the federal government fell by nearly 10 percent. This loss of roughly 62,000 veterans from federal service — including 13,000 fewer veterans serving at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — has resulted in the lowest number of federal employees who are veterans in over 15 years, according to historical Office of Personnel Management data no longer available online.
Veterans have felt the impact of the Administration’s chaotic and sweeping personnel policies across the federal government, including at the IRS, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Department of Education.
But it’s at the VA — the federal agency dedicated to running programs and services that benefit veterans and their families, including providing care through nearly 1,400 health care facilities — where the harm to veterans may be most acute. The Trump Administration cut nearly 28,000 VA employees (about 6 percent of agency staff) between January and December of 2025. Included in these losses were over 2,700 nurses, over 1,000 medical officers, and more than 1,000 psychologists and social workers, as well as over 1,800 people tasked with evaluating veterans’ claims for benefits. As a result, VA health centers and offices in every state have seen staffing declines ...
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/veterans-have-borne-trump-administrations-deep-cuts-to-federal-personnel
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