[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today hosted labor unions representing Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) employees, veterans, and a group of his Senate and House colleagues for a press conference outside VA headquarters to rail against President Trump and Elon Musk’s assault on VA’s workforce and harmful policies for veterans and their families.

“Memo to Elon Musk—nine million veterans are watching you,” said Blumenthal. “Nine million veterans are watching you give them the middle finger. And we’re not going to stand for it. We are going to fight Elon Musk’s plan to slash and trash the VA in the biggest power grab and heist of valuable information and money in our nation’s history.”

Blumenthal underscored the real-life impacts of Elon Musk and Trump’s policies for veterans, including the VA hiring freeze and reduction in force Executive Orders: “We owe our heroes better than what we have seen in the forced reduction plans…and we are seeing already the impacts on our VA facilities and veterans’ benefits all around the country. These reports come from people who work in the VA. New facilities unable to open. Beds reduced at ICUs. Inpatient mental facilities cut. Operating rooms closed indefinitely. That’s only the beginning of the practical real-life impact of Elon Musk’s trash and slash approach to the VA and other federal agencies.

The Senator continued, “Now, what Elon Musk says he’s doing is cutting waste. In fact, he’s laying waste to democracy…And nine million veterans across the country depend on the VA disability benefits, health care, day-in and day-out. Real-life impacts cannot be ignored. And here in the shadow of the VA, I am here to say, we will honor our heroes. We will keep the faith with you. We will not surrender. We are not going away. We are not abandoning you. We will fight Elon Musk and his tech bros who are exploiting you and enriching themselves and the billionaires who are with them.”

President Trump and Elon Musk’s actions to attack and reduce VA’s workforce comes at a time when VA faces critical staffing shortages and increased demand for its services, such as urgently needed mental health care to reduce the veteran suicide rate.

The Administration’s harmful policies for VA employees include:

• President Trump’s recently announced “‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” which requires allowing only one employee to be hired for every four that depart, signaling the intent to reduce the workforce by 75%.
• The Administration’s continued VA hiring freeze on employees critical to delivering health care and benefits to veterans including housekeepers, benefits claims processors, food service workers, and peer support for veterans experiencing homelessness or mental health crises.
• Elon Musk’s “Fork in the Road” ‘buy out’ offers forcing VA employees to choose between giving up their devotion to serving veterans or blind allegiance to the President.

VA’s hiring freeze impacts positions already facing shortages, including those that deliver veterans’ health care and benefits, and that work at VA cemeteries. The hiring freeze includes all positions at the Veterans Benefits Administration who continue to process historically high numbers of claims for benefits thanks to the PACT Act, employees at the National Cemetery Administration working to memorialize our veterans, and critical hospital support staff necessary for the function of VA hospitals. Veterans make up more than 25% of VA’s workforce, which is comprised of more than 450,000 VA employees nationwide.

The full text of Blumenthal’s remarks is copied below and a video link is available here.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Let me begin with some thanks. Thank you to my colleagues who are here today from both the House and the Senate. We are going to be joined by others, and we’re going to speak briefly, each of us, because we are literally in the middle of votes.

I want to thank all of the union leaders who are here today, who are representing the great workers in this building and all around the country, who serve our heroes. And most important, I want to thank the veterans who are here today. Raise your hand if you’re a veteran. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Memo to Elon Musk—9 million veterans are watching you. 9 million veterans are watching you give them the middle finger. And we’re not going to stand for it. We are going to fight Elon Musk’s plan to slash and trash the VA in the biggest power grab and heist of valuable information and money in our nation’s history.

We owe our heroes better than what we have seen in the forced reduction plans—you know, forced reduction is a nice way of saying massive layoffs, attrition-based reduction in the numbers of people, and we are seeing already, already, the impacts on our VA facilities and veterans’ benefits all around the country. These reports come from people who work in the VA. New facilities unable to open. Beds reduced at ICUs. Inpatient mental facilities cut. Operating rooms closed indefinitely. That’s only the beginning of the practical real-life impact of Elon Musk’s trash and slash approach to the VA and other federal agencies.

But the VA and our veterans are different. They have earned, they deserve, as a matter of moral policy, what Elon Musk is trying to cut. And we are here to say we are going to stand with the VA, we are going to fight for our veterans, we will not tolerate—we will not tolerate—Elon Musk’s disrespect for veterans and giving them the middle finger.

Now, what Elon Musk says he’s doing is cutting waste. In fact, he’s laying waste to democracy. He says he’s ending abuse, but he is abusing our veterans, and many other Americans. And 9 million veterans across the country depend on the VA disability benefits, health care, day-in and day-out. Real-life impacts cannot be ignored.

And here in the shadow of the VA, I am here to say, we will honor our heroes. We will keep the faith with you. We will not surrender. We are not going away. We are not abandoning you. We will fight Elon Musk and his tech bros who are exploiting you and enriching themselves and the billionaires who are with them.

So with that, let me again thank everyone who is here, and I’m going to turn it over now to a hero of the American labor movement, Everett Kelly of the American Federation of Government Employees.