N.M. Delegation Condemns Trump’s Plan to Cut Veterans Health Administration Positions

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) released the following statement condemning the Trump Administration's announced plan to eliminate tens of thousands of positions within the Veterans Health Administration, which could include positions at the Raymond G. Murphy U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Albuquerque and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) in New Mexico.

"New Mexico veterans answered the call to serve our country and defend our freedoms. We owe it to these men and women to honor their sacrifice and ensure they have access to the care they have earned. The VA must be held accountable for plans to cut their essential workforce and for President Trump's pattern of disrespecting our veterans by further delaying their care and benefits.

"This is just another step toward the Trump Administration's goal of privatizing the VA. Let's be clear: New Mexico veterans do not want a private VA. They want a better VA that is their own. We will fight like hell to protect their VA and ensure these heroes receive the health care they were promised."

The VA has already lost more than 30,000 employees this year and Trump's newest plan to eliminate tens of thousands more jobs will only exacerbate staffing shortages due to mass firings, hiring freezes, and contract cancellations earlier this year. Eliminating vacant positions will only make it even harder for VA to meet increased demand for services as more than one million veterans enrolled as a result of the expanded eligibility under the PACT Act for toxic exposure, as well as urgently needed mental health care resources aimed at reducing the veteran suicide rate.

While the VA has not announced how many positions will be cut from New Mexico, the plan would shrink the VA's essential workforce across the country. Today, N.M. Delegation staff asked the VA if any positions at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center will be cut and how those cuts will be determined. But the VA did not provide any answers specific to New Mexico. The N.M. Delegation will continue to press the Trump Administration for transparency and concrete answers on these planned VA cuts and their impacts on essential medical services for New Mexico veterans.

Earlier this year, Heinrich and Luján introduced the Putting Veteran's First Act, which reverses the chaos and damage created at the VA by the Trump Administration.

Additionally, Heinrich and Luján called on VA Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated in February who serve veterans and their families nationwide, including critical employees combatting veteran suicide working at the Veterans Crisis Line.

This week, Heinrich and Vasquez successfully passed their TRICARE Travel Improvement Act to ensure active-duty service members and their families can be reimbursed when they travel for medical care.

In March, Vasquez introduced the New Mexico Rural Veteran Health Care Access Act to protect access to care for rural veterans living in Otero and Eddy counties.

In 2022, Heinrich, Lujan, Leger Fernández, and Stansbury also successfully defeated recommendations put forth to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, which threatened to close the CBOCs in Gallup, Las Vegas, Española, and Raton, New Mexico.

###

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Tweet