The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will pay the Office of Personnel Management more than $726,000 to consult on a new round of layoffs at VA, according to documents obtained by Federal News Network.
The interagency agreement reportedly states that OPM is responsible for the regulatory requirements and policy adherence that VA will follow in reorganizing its workforce, according to the story.
The proposed additional VA staff reductions may be the largest reduction in force under the Trump administration so far.
In March, the VA began cutting staff and terminating vendor contracts with the assistance of the Department of Government Efficiency. Lawmakers held shadow sessions to discuss potential DOGE-driven threats to veterans' care and patient data security.
That same month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a dramatic agency transformation that would consolidate 28 divisions into 15, reduce regional offices from 10 to five and cut the jobs of 20,000 staff members.
Mass HHS layoffs severely undercut essential IT, policy and contracting functions, anonymous agency sources told Healthcare IT News in early April.
The terminations, including 5,200 probationary employees, were temporarily reversed, but then HHS announced the larger mass layoffs were officially underway.
While HHS said that personnel cuts were focused on "redundant or unnecessary administrative positions," our sources feared that critical IT and contracting expertise at the agency had been lost.
"Our entire division of information technology was RIFd," said one former leader with first-hand experience in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. "That includes our chief information officer, our chief security officer and all our IT folks who manage the IT for the agency."
We have reached out to the VA to confirm an interagency agreement with OPM to oversee VA staffing reductions has been finalized and to provide a copy of the details. We will update this story if a response and additional information are made available.
OIG nominee grilled about VA staff reductions
Lawmakers have asked a senior advisor to the VA Secretary Doug Collins about the proposed terminations.
That advisor, Cheryl Mason, is also the nominee to lead the VA Office of Inspector General. She went before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for her nomination hearing on Tuesday.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. asked Mason if she would investigate Collins over the mass VA employee terminations.
Mason said that she has had no involvement in reductions in force to date, and cannot comment on an ongoing court case or investigate an action, specifically job terminations related to the VA's larger reorganization, that has not yet occurred.
As a senior advisor for the past four months and a member of President Donald Trump's reorganization team, Mason said she has been gathering and conveying information to and about the Veterans Benefits and National Cemetery Administrations.
When Blumenthal asked Mason if she had a role in any VA agency staff changes in 2025 or in planning for future reductions in force, she said she was not involved. Mason did, however, acknowledge conveying information about staff reassignments in her VA portfolio.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked Mason to explain how she can be a close advisor to VA Secretary Doug Collins and other senior VA leaders, and then turn around and become an independent investigator of decisions they might make.
"You're not coming in as a policymaker," the senator said. "The conflict of interest just jumps out at you."
King acknowledged Mason's general level of experience for the top OIG post, which included serving as Chairman of the Board of Veterans' Appeals from 2017 to 2022.
Mason said that, having previously served as a lawyer and a judge, she can and has acted independently.
"I am known as a tough, honest broker," she said.
King then urged her to investigate non-disclosure agreements, which members of VA staff have been asked to sign – an action he said was illegal.
"There shouldn't be a non-disclosure agreement on something like how we're going to reorganize the department," he said, adding that the agency has not shared its RIF plans with the committee.
Mason said she would take it under advisement and added that she believed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, sponsored by Blumenthal, should be followed.
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
