VA to Reduce Staff by Nearly 30K by End of FY2025

In June 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it had been considering large-scale staff reductions via a Reduction in Force (RIF), but that instead it planned to achieve a reduction of 30,000 staff members through voluntary and semi-voluntary departures. These departures include retirement, staff not hired during the federal hiring freeze, and staff that left during the "deferred resignation program," whereby employees left their jobs and were paid for a period of time, often against the backdrop of agencies threatening to conduct RIFs if a sufficient number of employees did not choose to leave. In announcing the reduction of 30,000 staffers, the VA indicated that it was not planning on filling those positions, instead leaving them vacant or eliminating them.