EXECUTIVE ORDERS PROJECT - FEDERAL WORKFORCE: VA Facility Opens with Questions about Staffing
Between 70%-80% of jobs at the new facility - not including doctors and nurses - are unfilled, according to Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
The Veteran’s Administration has opened a 470,000 square-foot medical facility designed to service more than 40,000 veterans in the region. It is designed to provide them with easier access in one central location using the latest technology. But the opening comes with less than 30% of the needed staff in place.
The facility, which cost $376 million to build, is located along U.S. Route 1 in Spotsylvania County. It was supposed to provide about 900 new jobs to the local economy and be the cornerstone of a new medical corridor in that part of the county.
The facility replaces the four local clinics in the area and is designed to provide one-stop shopping for local veterans who will no longer have to travel to Richmond for many services.
But, according to Senator Tim Kaine’s office, in response to an Advance inquiry, the facility, which opened on Friday, February 28, is understaffed because of the federal hiring freeze. Between 70% and 80% of the jobs at the hospital, not including Doctors and nurses, were unfilled as of opening day. About 260 people were working there when the facility opened.
An Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump in January froze all hiring by the federal government, including the Veterans Administration. Doctors, nurses, and 38 other medical and support staff positions were exempted from the new federal hiring freeze. But the freeze does apply to other staff at the center, like housekeepers, cooks, maintenance workers, as well as other office and support personnel.
It is not clear how the staffing shortage might affect services for the region’s veterans at the new facility.
The clinic opens at a time when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moves to cut over 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs. More than 2,400 probationary employees have already been fired nationwide.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner said in a statement that such cuts “would hurt the veterans who too often struggle to access the benefits they have earned.” He says the hiring freeze and layoffs erase the progress that has been made in veterans’ health care in recent years. Warner is promising to fight the cuts.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has not responded to several requests by the Advance for comment on this story.
The VA serves nearly 10 million veterans nationwide.
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