119-sres105

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 105 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
S. RES. 105

 Condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of 
 Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the 
 impact on veterans and their families.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 March 4, 2025

Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Slotkin, 
 Mr. Lujan, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Warnock, Ms. 
 Klobuchar, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. 
Alsobrooks, Mr. Kelly, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Baldwin, 
 Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Peters, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Sanders, 
Mr. Booker, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Warner, Ms. Smith, 
 Mr. Padilla, and Mr. Heinrich) submitted the following resolution; 
 which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of 
 Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the 
 impact on veterans and their families.

Whereas veterans make up approximately 30 percent of the Federal workforce, 
 including nearly 26 percent of the workforce of the Department of 
 Veterans Affairs and 45 percent of the workforce of the Department of 
 Defense;
Whereas more than 642,000 veterans are continuing their public service through 
 careers in the Federal Government;
Whereas veterans bring invaluable experience, including technical expertise, 
 training, security clearances, and commitment to service, to their work 
 as Federal employees;
Whereas, on February 13, 2025, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans 
 Affairs, Doug Collins, announced the termination of 1,000 employees of 
 the Department of Veterans Affairs;
Whereas, on February 24, 2025, Secretary Collins terminated an additional 1,400 
 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs;
Whereas United States Senators have, in pursuit of their oversight duties, 
 attempted to obtain detailed information from the Department of Veterans 
 Affairs regarding these terminations, including any analysis of the 
 impacts on veterans, confirmation that the terminations did not affect 
 essential services like call centers, homeless programs, mental health 
 care, transition assistance, claims processing, tribal health, and 
 veterans education benefits, involvement of unelected, unauthorized, 
 non-Department of Veterans Affairs personnel in the decisionmaking 
 process, and how much the Department of Veterans Affairs spent 
 recruiting and hiring these employees and will now spend covering their 
 workloads, but have yet to receive that information;
Whereas the mass terminations of employees of the Federal Government are 
 damaging the economic security and morale of veterans and their 
 families;
Whereas these terminations are harming the trust of veterans in the Department 
 of Veterans Affairs, and harming the ability of the Department to 
 recruit and retain employees;
Whereas gainful employment and economic security is a chief social determinant 
 of health; and
Whereas veterans and employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have 
 expressed concerns regarding the effect of these terminations, 
 including--

    (1) the suspension of service lines, beds, and operating rooms at 
hospitals and clinics of the Department;

    (2) the cancellation or postponement of mammogram and other time-
sensitive appointments;

    (3) the reduction of support lines for caregivers;

    (4) the termination of Veterans Crisis Line employees;

    (5) the termination of employees performing critical research at the 
Department;

    (6) the termination of cyber security personnel protecting websites of 
the Department; and

    (7) the termination of Vet Center staff: Now, therefore, be it

 Resolved, That is the sense of the Senate that--

    (1) mass terminations of employees at the Department of 
 Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis 
 of the impact on veterans and their families should be 
 condemned; and

    (2) all affected employees should be reinstated.
 <all>