Congressman Castro Demands Answers from Trump Administration on Mass Firings at the Department of Veterans Affairs
Read the full letter HERE
SAN ANTONIO — Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), who represents more than 50,000 San Antonio veterans, joined dozens of House Democrats in a letter last Saturday to demand answers and accountability from the Trump administration’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs after mass firings that affected more than 1,000 VA employees, many of whom are service-disabled veterans or military spouses.
“The Administration’s late-night actions on February 13, 2025, to terminate over 1,000 dedicated federal civil servants at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) directly contradicts your recent testimony before the U.S. Senate, where you said, “I want to strengthen VA so it works better for America’s heroes, and I will embrace your oversight and seek your counsel as we work together to do just that.” Yet, rather than seeking the counsel of Congress, you took unilateral action to abruptly dismiss service-disabled veterans, military spouses, medical researchers, and countless others without any apparent justification—undermining the very mission of VA.
There is nothing strengthening about gutting the workforce with the sacred mission to serve veterans, caregivers, and survivors. It defies logic that you would terminate employees who are veterans themselves and who are serving veterans daily, all without regard to their performance or the devastating consequences of these firings,” the members wrote.
“This Administration may believe it can run government agencies the way Elon Musk gutted Twitter—by arbitrarily slashing staff and expecting operations to somehow function seamlessly—but VA is not a tech start-up, and veterans are not an experiment. We will not allow reckless political games to undermine the care and benefits our veterans have earned,” the members continued.