WASHINGTON – Earlier this week, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) announced he will place a blanket hold on all nominations to the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) following news of the Trump Administration’s plans to eliminate over 83,000 jobs from the Department with no explanation on how these firings will specifically occur.
These cuts must be reversed, and until the Department does so, as well as commits to abandon it’s plans to unilaterally layoff over 83,000 VA employees, Senator Gallego will keep his hold on nominees in place.
See coverage below.
On the Airwaves
CNN:
Senator Gallego: “I came into this administration with a belief that we should try to work together for the betterment of veterans. I’ve used the VA, I received VA disability benefits, I have a lot of friends that I served with in the Marine Corps that are currently using the VA, and I voted for actually the first two VA nominees. And then they came out with these drastic draconian cuts that are going to cut more than 80,000 employees and more importantly, the services they provide to veterans. And there was no explanation how they were going to do this without actually affecting the services to these men. We’re talking about PTSD therapies that could be lifesaving, other types of therapies that are, you know, are really important for fulfilling lives. And they just expected us in the Senate and in Congress in general just to accept that you could do this. I’m just not going to accept that. I’m going to fight for these veterans like they fought for us. I’m going to use whatever tool I can to make sure that I protect them, and this is one of the few ones I have.” […]
Reporter: “You must be prepared that you are going to face a tremendous amount of pressure here.”
Senator Gallego: “I am, but you know who’s really facing the pressure are the veterans that are trying to get care. The dedicated veterans and VA employees that have given up working in the private sector to serve their country that are now basically living on the edge. And I just want to point out how difficult it’s going to be for us going into the future, for us to recruit the doctors, the nurses, the providers into the VA if they think at any point they’re going to just be arbitrarily cut for no reason. […] The administration claims to be pro-veteran. And all my Republican colleagues, the least we could do is to make sure that services aren’t cut and that these men and women aren’t waiting longer and longer to see their doctors to get the treatments they need.”
Reporter: “Do you believe that this is going to be detrimental? Obviously, you do, but what areas will this be detrimental to the VA?”
Senator Gallego: “Well, my biggest concern is that we’re not getting enough information to really make determinations on that. So I’ll give you a good example. Right now, there’s a memo that went out to the Phoenix VA, a hospital that actually has had a lot of problems, like long wait times, people dying while waiting for services. And they said they want them to put a 15% cut in place […] of employees by June. Who are these people? What are the services they provide? How’s this going to affect wait times? We’ve already seen some horrible mistakes, for example, of the veteran crisis hotline being shut down. Something we were working hard on in a bipartisan manner for so many years to build up, so people, or veterans when they feel they need to call someone to avoid suicide, someone there picked up. And right now we’re seeing that there’s been shutdowns of that critical program. So this is one of the few tools I have to slow them down, make them explain themselves, and potentially save critical services.”
Senator Gallego: “In Arizona, they just sent out a notice that starting in April they want the Phoenix VA to identify 15% of staffers to be get rid of by June. Where did that review come from? This is real people’s lives. Veterans will die. There’s going to be [a] lack of services, lack of mental health services. There’s so much more we can be doing to turn around the VA, and some 22-year-old Silicone Valley boy is coming up with an idea of what should be cuts to the VA has zero concept of the VA.”
Reporter: “On Capitol Hill, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego says he’s going to block the confirmation of top leaders at the VA because of military job cuts. The Veterans Affairs Department is looking to eliminate 80,000 positions, and that would bring its workforce to just under 400,000.”
Senator Gallego: “There’s no plan of what this means. How is this going to affect services? We actually need to be hiring more people, not firing people. I’ve talked to a lot of veterans in Arizona. They’re telling me that they’re worried.”
Senator Gallego: “How can we tell that therapist that can probably go into private practice and make a lot more money, ‘Come and work for us, but at any point we can arbitrarily kick you out. And by the way, to get around our employment laws we’re gonna say that you actually performed poorly, and well, good luck with that and who knows if that’ll affect you financially in the future.’”
In Print
AP: A Democratic senator is putting holds on VA nominees to protest Trump’s plans to cut its workforce
[Stephen Groves, 4/1/25]
“Talking to veterans, people that I served with as well as seeing some of what’s happening in Arizona, I decided that whatever tool I have to fix the situation, I’m going to use it. And this is one of the few tools I have at this point,” Gallego told The Associated Press.
Arizona Republic: Sen. Ruben Gallego pledges to block VA nominations in protest of Trump-led workforce cuts
[Laura Gersony, 4/2/25]
Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, called the cuts “extremely concerning.”
“Eighty-three-thousand VA employees getting cut means 83,000 opportunities that we’re going to miss, probably, helping some of these veterans,” he said Tuesday at a hearing. “I can’t live with that on my conscience.”
He plans to block VA nominees “until I can prove to the veterans that I served with … and the veterans I represent now in Arizona, all over the country, that this is not going to hurt them.”
See more:
- The Hill: Senate Democrat will block Trump’s VA nominees to protest cuts [Alexander Bolton, 4/1/25]
- Fox News: Senate Dem to block VA nominees to protest DOGE cuts [Anders Hagstrom, 4/1/25]
- Arizona’s Family: Ruben Gallego says he will block Trump’s VA nominees [4/1/25]
- MSNBC [4/3/25]
4/3/25