Local veterans and their allies and healthcare providers, along with Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Mike Levin, spoke out Wednesday against proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs at a pair of events in San Diego County.
Nurses from the VA Medical Center in La Jolla — joined by veterans, patients and other union members — rallied outside the hospital to protest the cuts, which they say could have devastating impacts for the veterans in their care and overwork the workers still left.
“Every position is mission critical,” Andrea Johnson, a nurse there, told the crowd. “Eliminating housekeeping, dietary, transportation, respiratory therapists and lab technicians will lead to delays in admissions and delays in care, which can and will result in negative patient outcomes.”
Padilla came to the event to show his support, just before heading to an afternoon discussion in Del Mar with Rep. Mike Levin and county leaders focused on how to confront what he called “cruel” proposed cuts to the VA.
The Trump administration says it plans to cut roughly 80,000 jobs — or about 15% — from the VA, which provides health care, housing, pensions, education stipends and more to the country’s 15.8 million military veterans, close to 200,000 of whom live in San Diego County.
The proposal is one of several ways the administration has said it aims to slash jobs and services across the federal government, and comes in addition to the tens of thousands of federal jobs the administration has already moved to cut.
The planned VA cuts also come just after the department delivered more than 127 million health care appointments in fiscal year 2024, up 6% over the previous year.
In 2022, the VA also expanded services to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their time in the service, which has brought nearly 800,000 more veterans to enroll in VA healthcare.
Many local veterans have expressed outrage at the premise of cuts; in mid-March, about 200 people gathered at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park to protest them.
The VA told The San Diego Union-Tribune last month that it would go through a “deliberative process” to make cuts without cutting services for veterans.
“We’re not talking about reducing medical staff or claims processors, we’re talking about reducing bureaucracy and inefficiencies that are getting in the way of customer convenience and service to veterans,” agency spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz said in an email.
Many people at Wednesday’s union rally said they are happy with the care they have received from the VA and say that cuts anywhere within the agency could hurt the services they get.
George Wilson, a U.S. Army veteran who is currently being treated for colon cancer at the VA Medical Center, has no other health insurance and worries the cuts will prevent hospital staff from fully caring for patients like him.
Other veterans said they were already feeling some negative consequences.
Edward Stephen Green, a Vietnam veteran, suffered a spinal stroke six months ago that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He first received care at Sharp Hospital before transferring to the VA hospital 12 weeks ago, and he describes the care from the VA as “the best you can get.”
But he’s noticed some recent hiccups. He said there are fewer staffers working in food service, which slows down the process of getting food out to patients, and sometimes the hospital runs out of food items all together.
Morale among hospital staff is low, said Angel Zermeno, who works in housekeeping there.
A U.S. Army veteran himself, Zermeno said he feels satisfied with his work when he comes home each day, knowing he could help make veterans’ stay more comfortable. But the cuts are complicating that.
“It’s distressing, because we see what we need to do,” he said. “And because of those budget cuts, we’re not gonna have the necessary personnel to serve our veterans.”
Veterans like Zermeno make up about 30% of the VA workforce. About 630,000 veterans work for the federal government at large, making up about the same share of the federal workforce.
Padilla stressed that point Wednesday afternoon at the meeting in Del Mar with state and local leaders to discuss the proposed cuts.
“It’s double the insult to injury when you talk about reducing support, reducing services and care — and taking away their jobs and their livelihood,” he said.
Padilla and other leaders said they are attuned to the worries from veterans and VA staff and have seen how care has already been affected.
Rep. Mike Levin said the lack of communication at the VA has presented challenges in carrying out regional programs for veterans, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, which provides housing assistance to homeless veterans.
“Just getting a call back, getting a human being on the other end of the line, has become more difficult,” he said.
The elected officials said they trying to combat the proposed cuts, pointing to the Putting Veterans First Act, a bill that would reinstate and provide full backpay and benefits to all veterans fired from federal jobs, including VA employees.
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