Veterans Benefits Administration Employees Blocked from Speaking to Department Attorneys

On March 10, 2025, Government Executive reported the apparent existence of a policy that employees of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) were forbidden from speaking to the VA's Office of General Counsel (OGC) without explicit permission from a political appointee at the agency. The directive was reportedly announced via email by Cheryl Mason — who was, at the time a senior advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and as of this writing is the VA's Inspector General. There are tens of thousands of employees in the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and prior to this directive the VBA routinely sought legal advice from OGC attorneys. After the initial email directive from Mason, the policy was reportedly relaxed so that VBA employees could communicate with regional OGC counsel, so long as each communication was reported to a senior advisor with "the date of the interaction, with whom they met, the nature of the discussion and how long the interaction lasted."