A northwest suburban member of Congress is demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on its plan to eliminate thousands of job vacancies at VA hospitals nationwide, including more than 600 at Chicago-area care centers.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, sent a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins on Thursday expressing “serious concern” after the Sun-Times reported 400 open positions would be eliminated at Chicago’s Jesse Brown VA along with 200 at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago.
“In many VA facilities, vacancies reflect persistent hiring challenges in a tight health care labor market — not a lack of need,” wrote Krishnamoorthi, who’s running for the Senate seat soon to be vacated by Dick Durbin. “From the perspective of veterans awaiting appointments, delayed procedures, or mental health services, an unfilled position often represents care that has not yet arrived, not care that is no longer required.
“Absent a clear, facility-by-facility explanation for how eliminating these positions will improve care delivery, I am concerned that this decision could lock in staffing shortages, limit future capacity and prolong wait times for veterans in Illinois and nationwide,” he wrote.
“From the perspective of veterans awaiting appointments, delayed procedures, or mental health services, an unfilled position often represents care that has not yet arrived, not care that is no longer required,” U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said in a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
VA officials say most of the 25,000 unfilled positions being cut nationwide are pandemic-era roles that have been open for more than a year, “underscoring how they are no longer needed,” according to spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz.
He said no employees are being removed, vacancies are still being filled as needed “and this will have zero impact on veteran care.”
But Chicago-area VA employees told the Sun-Times the move would further strain hospitals that are stretched thin, with a nurses’ union leader saying the staff at Lovell is “already at a breaking point.”
The VA has already shed more than 30,000 workers overall this year after the widespread job-cutting campaign of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
“I can’t tell you how many workers from various VA facilities have contacted me and told me not just how they are very concerned about the lack of staffing and what it’s doing to veterans’ care, but the fear they have with the atmosphere within the VA,” Krishnamoorthi told the Sun-Times in an interview. “They feel like at this point they’re being watched for their actions and for their speech and whether they say the wrong thing in regard to Donald Trump.”
Southern Illinois Rep. Mike Bost, a Republican who chairs the House VA Committee, has said he supports the effort to “cut through the bureaucracy, remove the red tape and push VA forward.”
Krishnamoorthi asked Collins to provide an assessment by Jan. 3 on how the cuts would affect services and what alternatives were considered.
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