When Ald. Matt O’Shea walked into his 19th Ward office Wednesday morning, he saw five veterans in line waiting for one-on-one support from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The former service members come from all over the Chicago area every week to get help securing health care, employment, disability pay and other benefits during the support sessions staffed by VA workers, O’Shea said. But Wednesday marked a sudden, unexpected last day for the program, he said.
Sweeping cuts to federal agencies made by President Donald Trump’s administration appeared to come home to ward offices across Chicago, as O’Shea and several other members of the City Council told the Tribune they’d been notified by the VA that it was “temporarily” pausing the outreach.
“Veterans served their country,” O’Shea said. “And they didn’t turn their back on us. They were there, protecting the freedom we all enjoy. Now, the government is turning their back on veterans. What message does it send?”
The pause in help came as news broke that the Department of Veterans Affairs planned to undertake a sweeping reorganization that would include slashing around 80,000 agency jobs.
“To ensure we provide the highest level of care where needed most, we must temporarily pause our comprehensive outreach program,” a letter sent to aldermen and reviewed by the Tribune read.
“We understand this is short notice and sincerely wish there was more time to prepare for this transition. However, after careful evaluation, it became clear that immediate action was necessary to ensure that our Veterans receive the highest level of care in the areas where they need it most. This decision was not made lightly,” the email read.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, a Marine Corps veteran who helped spread the outreach program that he said took place across more than a dozen ward offices, called the pause a “slap in the face to veterans.”
“It really pisses me off, because the fact is you have Republicans and Trump talking about patriotism, America first,” Villegas, 36th, said. “It goes contrary to the message you’re trying to deliver. Are you America first and patriots or are you just a fraud listening to a billionaire trying to make cuts?”
On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that the VA plans to cut about 80,000 jobs across the agency as part of a restructuring to begin in August. More than a quarter of the staff of the VA, which provides health care for retired military service members, are veterans themselves.
Last month, the VA announced the firings of more than 1,000 workers. The initial cuts came as part of a broad, chaotic mass firings of “probationary” federal employees led by the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, helmed by Trump ally and billionaire Elon Musk.
The VA workers laid off as part of those firings had worked for the agency for less than two years. The laid-off VA employees included researchers who worked on cancer treatment, opioid addiction and burn pit exposure, the AP reported.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the ward office outreach cuts were directly related to the planned slashing of the VA workforce or with the prior firings of VA workers. The VA did not respond to a request for comment about the outreach cuts Wednesday.
Aldermen Matt Martin, 47th, and Jason Ervin, 28th, also told the Tribune they had been notified of the pause in the program.
“There’s nothing wasteful or inefficient about how the VA has been endeavoring to serve members of the armed forces who have given so much to our country,” Martin said.
Cuts on veterans’ services should “never be an option,” said Kevin Barszcz, director of the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.
“There is no dollar amount we can put on the price our veterans paid to protect our freedoms. And when our country calls upon our men and women to serve again, they will,” Barszcz said.
The Cook County’s Veterans Assistance Commission plans to respond to the outreach hold by adding ward office consultations of its own, Superintendent Elizabeth Soto said. The county veterans commission is not reliant on federal funding, she added.
“Our department is committed to filling this gap,” Soto said. “We have a clear mission. It’s to make sure every veteran has access to these benefits they earned. And we’re not going to let them down.”
