A “small” number of jobs have been cut from across Texas in the Veteran’s Administration hospitals, though the exact number is unknown.
The San Antonio Express-News reported on Thursday that probationary staff in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Temple, and Waco as part of widespread government cuts, though the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to give an exact number. The cuts come on the order of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the president’s largest campaign donor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an organization whose legal status is questionable.
The cuts affected the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital, and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. Popular legend has it that the DeBakey Hospital in Houston is the second-largest federal building in the country after the Pentagon.
The VA released a statement to the Express-News saying the cuts will “have no negative effect on veteran health care, benefits or other services and will allow VA to focus more effectively on its core mission of serving veterans, families, caregivers and survivors.” No information was released regarding the positions that were cut at these facilities, only that the people in them were still in their one or two-year probationary period.
The Trump/Musk cuts across the government have been heavily centered on fighting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) polices in government. If this was the main purpose in jettisoning VA staff, it’s a very bizarre move. DEI, by definition, works with American veterans, many of whom are physically or mentally disabled from serving their county. The VA itself is often a major employer of U.S. veterans or their spouses, many of whom are perpetually probationary due to constant movement.
San Antonio Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro blasted Trump for the cuts in a letter signed by dozens of House Democrats.
“There is nothing strengthening about gutting the workforce with the sacred mission to serve veterans, caregivers, and survivors,” it read. “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.”
Discovering the extent of the cuts will require filing a Freedom of Information Act request, which the Express-News has already done.
A Texas veteran, Josh Basham, whose wife was set to start working as a nurse at a VA facility in Waco, pleaded with Trump on Twitter last month to help his family after her job was cut shortly after moving to the state to begin work. The tweet went viral.
“We are all huge Trump supporters and I know this was an unintended consequence,” it said. “We have spent thousands to move our family. Now our family is lost with no clear path.”
