Davids Joins Colleagues to Condemn Trump’s Actions to Gut VA

Today, Representative Sharice Davids joined more than 90 of her colleagues in demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) following the abrupt termination of more than 1,000 VA employees, including service-disabled veterans, military spouses, and medical researchers. In a letter to VA Secretary Collins, Davids, and her colleagues called out the administration’s lack of transparency and disregard for the impact these firings will have on veterans and their families.

“It defies logic that you would terminate employees who are veterans themselves and who are serving veterans daily, all without regard to their performance or the devastating consequences of these firings,” wrote Davids and her colleagues. “[The] VA is not a tech start-up, and veterans are not an experiment. We will not allow reckless political games to undermine the care and benefits our veterans have earned.”

The letter highlights the administration’s failure to consult Congress before taking sweeping action, noting that even the VA’s Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs was unaware of the terminations until a press release was issued late at night. It also raises concerns that the firings were ideologically driven, rather than based on performance or necessity.

Davids, whose mother served in the Army for 20 years, and her colleagues are demanding a full congressional briefing by February 26, 2025, in which Secretary Collins must provide a clear justification for the terminations and evidence that they will not negatively impact VA health care and benefits.

Davids’ office helps military and veteran constituents with casework and acts as a facilitator between federal, state, and local agencies. For more information on how veterans can receive assistance, constituents are encouraged to visit Davids’ website or call her office at (913) 621-0832.

Read the full letter here or below.  

Dear Mr. Secretary: 

The Administration’s late-night actions on February 13, 2025, to terminate over 1,000 dedicated federal civil servants at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) directly contradicts your recent testimony before the U.S. Senate, where you said, “I want to strengthen VA so it works better for America’s heroes, and I will embrace your oversight and seek your counsel as we work together to do just that.” Yet, rather than seeking the counsel of Congress, you took unilateral action to abruptly dismiss service-disabled veterans, military spouses, medical researchers, and countless others without any apparent justification—undermining the very mission of VA. There is nothing strengthening about gutting the workforce with the sacred mission to serve veterans, caregivers, and survivors. 

It defies logic that you would terminate employees who are veterans themselves and who are serving veterans daily, all without regard to their performance or the devastating consequences of these firings. We know this to be the case because, on February 14, 2025, when congressional staff requested these justifications from your Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, the official currently performing the delegable duties of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs claimed no one in that office had knowledge of these actions until VA’s press release was issued the night of February 13, 2025, at 9:06 p.m. This admission underscores the reckless, ill-planned nature of these firings, as well as a complete lack of transparency in how they were executed.  

Adding to our concerns, this mass firing follows a directive from the Office of Personnel Management instructing federal agencies, including VA, to provide justifications for retaining probationary employees. The sequence of events strongly suggests that the OPM directive was nothing more than a hollow exercise, ignored in favor of an ideological purge. This lack of meaningful review casts serious doubt on your claim that “these moves will not negatively impact VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries.”  

Given these serious concerns, we demand that you personally brief Members of Congress by no later than February 26, 2025, and that at this briefing you be prepared to thoroughly answer Members’ questions and to produce documentation and other evidence to support your claims. 

This Administration may believe it can run government agencies the way Elon Musk gutted Twitter—by arbitrarily slashing staff and expecting operations to somehow function seamlessly—but VA is not a tech start-up, and veterans are not an experiment. We will not allow reckless political games to undermine the care and benefits our veterans have earned. 

We look forward to your prompt response.