ICYMI: Senator Murray Presses VA Deputy Secretary Nominee on Mass Firings of VA Researchers, Holding Oracle Accountable to Get EHR Right for Veterans
ICYMI: Murray, Senate Democrats Demand Trump Exempt All VA Employees From Hiring Freeze
***LETTER HERE***
Washington DC - U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, sent a letter this week to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins expressing their deep concerns about how the ongoing federal hiring freeze is affecting VA researchers—many of whom have already lost their jobs—as well as the research programs funded by external entities that improve care and services for our nation’s veterans.
Los senadores escribieron, “Without immediate action to address the recent hiring constraints imposed by the Trump Administration, critical research efforts—and the veterans who rely on them—are at risk. Hundreds of VA research-funded positions are in jeopardy due to the hiring freeze. This freeze impacts researcher positions funded by grants, which are awarded as part of competitive funding mechanisms based on peer-review. These roles are essential to the safe and effective conduct of ongoing VA-funded research, by ensuring compliance with biological safety, data security, and other critical protocols.”
The members also pointed out that, according to the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations, “[D]uring the next 90 days alone, VA could lose an additional 200 research personnel who directly support research to advance veterans’ health and healthcare access,” highlighting the time-sensitive nature of the impacts to research funding.
Senator Murray has been outspoken in standing up for veterans, VA employees, and VA researchers against Trump and Elon Musk’s indiscriminate mass layoffs that will undermine critical services our nation’s veterans rely on every day. Senator Murray, a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was among the first to raise the alarm about the layoffs of VA researchers and called on President Trump to immediately reverse the firings. She presionado VA Deputy Secretary nominee Dr. Paul Lawrence on the firings of VA researchers at the hearing on his nomination last week, realizó una conferencia de prensa with a VA employee and veteran in Seattle who was abruptly laid off as part of the mass firings with zero justification, and put out a fact sheet on how the indiscriminate mass firings were hurting workers in Washington state, including VA researchers. In January, Murray and others called on President Trump to exempt all VA employees from the hiring freeze issued as part of his Day One Executive Orders.
Senator Murray has also repeatedly sounded the alarm over DOGE access at VA. She voted against Doug Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary—making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness was putting our national security and our veterans at risk—and joined her colleagues in prensado Secretary Collins to take immediate actions to secure veterans’ personal information provided by VA or other agencies to Elon Musk and DOGE.
The full text of Sens. Murray and Blumenthal’s letter can be found below and AQUÍ.
Dear Secretary Collins:
We write to express our deep concerns regarding the impact of the ongoing federal hiring freeze on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) research and the research programs funded by external entities that improve care and services for our nation’s veterans. The VA research enterprise has long been a pillar of medical innovation, responsible for groundbreaking advancements that have improved the lives of millions of veterans and Americans, and is a major recruitment tool in bringing top talent to the Department. Researchers at VA have been responsible for revolutionary medical achievements, including implanting the first successful cardiac pacemaker, developing the nicotine patch and other therapies for smokers, maintaining the nation’s largest genomic biorepository, and advancing prosthetics technology. Without immediate action to address the recent hiring constraints imposed by the Trump Administration, critical research efforts—and the veterans who rely on them—are at risk.
Hundreds of VA research-funded positions are in jeopardy due to the hiring freeze. This freeze impacts researcher positions funded by grants, which are awarded as part of competitive funding mechanisms based on peer-review. These roles are essential to the safe and effective conduct of ongoing VA-funded research, by ensuring compliance with biological safety, data security, and other critical protocols. Further, according to the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations, during the next 90 days alone, VA could lose an additional 200 research personnel who directly support research to advance veterans’ health and healthcare access. These positions are either funded by non-VA entities, such as other federal agencies or philanthropic organizations, or are short-term assignments from academic institutions to allow VA to capitalize on specific expertise.
These mechanisms are not only fiscally responsible, but essential to sustaining VA’s research mission. At a time when the Trump Administration claims to be hyper-focused on efficient use of taxpayer dollars, it is unacceptable that the Department has targeted cost-effective research aiming to improve veterans’ health outcomes. If these appointments are not processed, an estimated 370 studies and clinical trials could be canceled or suspended in the next 90 days, directly impacting up to 10,000 veterans currently participating in research studies.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of VA research, we have a responsibility to safeguard its future. VA has been at the forefront of medical breakthroughs for a century, and continued investment in its research workforce is essential to ensuring that legacy endures. We strongly urge VA to swiftly reverse the hiring freeze and any related personnel decisions to prevent disruptions to research that directly contributes to improving veteran health outcomes.
We appreciate your attention to this critical issue and stand ready to support swift efforts that will allow VA research to move forward without disruption.
Atentamente,
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