The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has an outsized influence in Hawaii and the Pacific. From its base in Honolulu, the VA Pacific Islands Healthcare System (VAPIHS) coordinates care and services for U.S. military veterans throughout these islands and for the territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Around 130,000 veterans live in Hawaii, and many of them work at the VA. So concern is widespread over plans to eliminate 72,000 VA jobs nationwide, in addition to those already gone.
Despite VA leaders’ assurances that no “mission critical” jobs serving vets will be eliminated, the veterans served and those employed by the VA deserve better than this clumsy rollout. They, and all U.S. citizens, need more clarity about just what — and whose — work will be eliminated.
Our veterans are owed explicit assurance that crucial services won’t be compromised or eliminated — backed with a credible plan for making that so, which must include input from our elected representatives in Congress. Transparency as this plan is carried out — lacking so far — is also required.
Trust hasn’t been bolstered by a federal quest for “efficiency” that’s so far been anything but efficient: marred by reckless and disrespectful treatment of employees, repeated turnarounds in stated policy and damaging effects on remaining staff. It’s been a whiplash-inducing journey, especially for VA employees, since the barrage of orders, offers and terminations started emanating from the Trump administration and the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).
President Donald Trump issued an executive order establishing a federal bureaucracy-wide hiring freeze on Jan. 20. The next day, the VA announced that it would still be hiring for more than 304,000 job openings considered exempt from the freeze because they are “mission critical” and connected to providing veterans’ benefits and services. The job categories included health care — such as Veterans Crisis Line responders — and public safety.
Within the next two weeks, however, reporters documented that hiring had been “frozen” at VA clinics and hospitals in five states, including California, because DOGE had taken over hiring software and locked administrators out — a damaging blunder that was eventually reversed.
More than 1,000 employees were terminated on Feb. 13, and another 1,400 on Feb. 24. All held jobs that were “non-mission critical,” stated the VA.
On March 5, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the layoff target of 72,000 would reduce employment to 2019 levels — a nearly 15% decrease. “We will accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits,” he assured.
In Hawaii, the Star-Advertiser reports, a “small number” of probationary employees have been terminated. More cuts to personnel and contracts are expected — but how many, and when? The VA states that safeguards are in place to ensure benefits and services aren’t impacted — they must not be — but the process is muddy.
There’s special concern, too, for staff added to serve veterans whose health was damaged by combat-zone burn pits, under the 2022 PACT Act.
Last year, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono introduced the VetPAC Act, allowing for coordinated action to enhance “efficiency and quality” of VA health care services, but this approach was spurned.
VAPIHCS Director Adam M. Robinson, Jr., issued a message to VAPIHCS veterans on March 7 announcing that an urgent care clinic inside the new Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic would open next Monday, and a new urgent care telehealth option, “Health Connect,” has been rolled out.
“VAPIHCS is working diligently to expand services for Veterans across the Pacific Islands,” Robinson stated. This weekend, the VA has scheduled a “PACT Act Registration” event on Guam — an indication that PACT Act services will continue. What’s not been communicated, however, is just how the waves of retirements, resignations and dismissals will impact VAPIHCS.
Pacific region veterans deserve better. It’s incumbent on Robinson, and the VA as a whole, to communicate clearly and openly with veterans who served this nation, and to deliver on the VA’s commitment to them.
