Warner, Kaine Call on Trump to Exempt VA Employees from Hiring Freeze

Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have joined fellow lawmakers in urging President Donald Trump to exempt positions at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from his federal hiring freeze. In a letter to the president, the senators expressed concerns that the freeze could severely delay care and services for veterans nationwide, from health care and disability claims to burial services and assistance for homeless veterans.

“This Memorandum could dramatically impair the ability of veterans across the country to get the care and benefits they desperately need,” the senators warned. They also highlighted the potential effects on the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), stating the hiring freeze could worsen the backlog of disability claims, leaving many veterans without timely access to their earned benefits.

The VA responded to the mounting pressure by exempting certain positions from the freeze. However, the Veterans Benefits Administration must still navigate additional steps to fill vacancies, slowing operations that are critical to veterans. Additionally, key support staff, including cooks, housekeepers, and maintenance workers at VA medical centers, remain excluded from the exemptions, further straining the system.

Warner and Kaine have consistently advocated for improving veterans’ access to health care, housing, and benefits. In 2024, they supported the passage of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, which aims to reduce wait times for veterans seeking care and improve pay for VA employees. Both senators have also championed suicide prevention, securing $4.5 million in federal funding for programs in Virginia last year, and played a critical role in passing the PACT Act in 2022 to expand benefits for veterans exposed to toxins.

The bipartisan letter calling for action was led by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and co-signed by 24 senators, including members of both parties and independent Senator Bernie Sanders. Their collective message is clear: any policy that jeopardizes the well-being of the nation’s veterans must be reconsidered.

For now, as the hiring freeze continues to affect certain areas of the VA, lawmakers are calling on the administration to ensure that veterans’ health care and benefits are protected without delay.

The full text of the letter is available here and below.

Dear President Trump,

 We write with urgent concerns about the Presidential Memorandum issued on January 20, 2025, which instituted an immediate hiring freeze, with few exceptions, across the federal civil service. Veterans have earned and deserve the best quality health care and benefits possible. Delivering on that sacred promise starts with ensuring the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has the appropriate personnel in place to serve them. As written, this Memorandum could dramatically impair the ability of veterans across the country to get the care and benefits they desperately need. It could also delay or deny various other services across VA – from burial services to job training to assistance for homeless veterans to life-saving assistance from the Veterans Crisis Line. That is why it is imperative for you to provide an immediate, clear, and full exemption to this hiring freeze for VA so it can continue to deliver on its sacred mission for veterans.

 In your Memorandum, little detail is provided to understand the scope of its exemptions. And despite assurances that VA benefits would be exempt, we have become aware the hiring freeze will extend to the Veterans Benefits Administration – a decision that will dramatically impact the processing of disability claims, growing the backlog and making it more difficult for veterans to access their earned benefits, including those promised in the PACT Act. Additionally, there is no explicit exemption for employees serving the more than 9.2 million veterans enrolled in VA health care.

 Veterans deserve the best care possible from the best medical professionals in the country. To deliver on that obligation, VA continues to utilize various hiring authorities and incentives provided by Congress to address chronic medical workforce shortages, particularly in rural areas. Instead of building upon those efforts, one of your first actions was to stop them entirely, and to issue new directives to VA personnel across the country to not only leave vacancies unaddressed, but to revoke job offers that have already been made. That is a betrayal of trust to veterans on day one of your Administration, and it is a betrayal of trust to prospective VA employees intent on serving veterans – an action that will undoubtedly have long-term impacts on VA’s ability to effectively recruit and retain the physicians, nurses, and other critical positions that make VA the preferred option for care for veterans.

 Mr. President, to prevent the delay or denial of life-saving services and benefits for our nation’s heroes, we urge you to provide an immediate, clear, and full exemption to VA personnel from your hiring freeze. Thanks largely to the PACT Act and the leadership of the Biden Administration, VA is providing more care and more benefits to more veterans than at any time in its history. We are hopeful to work with you to build upon our nation’s promise to these men and women, but we also vow to fight every effort that dishonors their service and reneges upon that sacred promise. 

 Sincerely,