San Antonio, TX (San Antonio Report)
The Trump administration announced another round of layoffs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday, pushing the total number of employees terminated nationwide to 2,400 over the past two weeks.
The impact of these cuts on San Antonio, known as Military City, USA, remains unclear.
The VA declined to provide details to the San Antonio Report about the number of layoffs in the area, stating only that “a small number of probationary staff were dismissed,” and citing privacy concerns in their refusal to disclose further information.
Veterans — already grappling with wait times of weeks, or even months, for health care through the VA — are left uncertain about how these layoffs might affect those delays. Despite the recent personnel cuts, the Trump administration and VA officials have said that veterans’ services will not be disrupted by these changes.
San Antonio has 13 VA clinics throughout the city in addition to the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital.
VA data shows that about 86% of veterans utilizing the VA system in South Texas were able to see a primary care physician as soon as needed, while only about 60% of veterans reported being able to see a specialty doctor for urgent needs.
At the newly-built North West San Antonio VA Clinic on State Highway 151, established patients wait an average of seven days for a primary care appointment. A new patient often waits 25 days for that appointment, according to the VA’s Access to Care website.
At that same clinic, established patients wait an average of 20 days for a neurology appointment, while new patients wait 153 days to see that kind of specialist, according to the VA’s Access to Care website.
A handful of military veterans who utilize the VA services in San Antonio interviewed by the San Antonio Report said they are concerned these layoffs will lead to longer wait times between their appointments.
U.S. Navy veteran Ricardo Garza, 74, said he’s waited as long as four months for an appointment for his aching knee, which he got as the result of combat service during his 30 years of active duty.
“It’s going to get worse,” Garza said. “If they can barely manage with the staff they have now, they certainly won’t be able to keep up with layoffs.”
The impact of these layoffs on the VA system is more complex than it may seem says San Antonio resident Tracy Johnson.
A retired physician, Johnson worked in an administrative role at the VA for 19 years before retiring in December. She said she chose to retire last year, anticipating that the transition under the new presidential administration would be challenging.
She believes the full effects of President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut down federal spending could take “years to manifest and decades to repair.”
According to the VA, all of the 2,400 fired were probationary employees.
A probationary period for VA employees is a trial period during which new hires are assessed for their performance, behavior, and overall suitability for the position and typically last one or two years. However, employees who are promoted or moved to a different position also restart their probationary periods.
There are currently nearly 40,000 probationary employees across the department, the vast majority of whom are exempt because they serve in mission-critical positions — primarily those supporting benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.
Michael Chastain, a U.S. Army veteran who lives in San Antonio, was part of the first round of VA employees laid off on Feb. 13.
Chastain, who had been promoted late last year, found himself placed on a new 12-month probationary period. He had joined the VA in August 2023, eager to serve the veteran community after his 24 years of active combat service. But on Feb. 13, he received an email notifying him of his termination due to “poor performance.”
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the email,” Chastain told the San Antonio Report, his voice shaking. He had been working as a human resources assistant, handling tasks such as scheduling occupational health appointments for potential hires, including drug screenings.
Chastain was the only member of his 25-person team who was laid off that he knows of, he said. His experience reflects the struggles of other veterans across the country who have been dismissed recently while on a probationary period.
Johnson said that their responsibilities, such as ensuring timely appointments and coordinating patient care, directly impact the quality and accessibility of services.
Therefore, cutting these roles could cause significant disruption, leading to long-term backlogs and delays in treatment, further stretching an already overburdened system, she suggested.
So while clinicians and physicians get to keep their positions, administrative positions like those scheduling appointments may have been deemed unnecessary even though their work is also critical, she said.
These positions, despite not being directly involved in providing patient care, are important to ensuring the efficiency of the entire system, Johnson said.
“One thing to look at is, “How could this have been done differently?”” Johnson said. “The federal government could have asked leadership to help them cut 4% across the board in a more organized manner, but instead its been done with no deference to those with that expertise.
Johnson criticized the rushed and disorganized nature of the layoffs.
“It feels like there’s no real logic behind it,” she said, adding that firing employees under the pretense of poor performance can have long-lasting effects, especially when it comes to their future job prospects.
“Words have lasting impressions,” she said. “If someone receives a letter stating their performance is poor, that can severely affect their ability to get a good reference or find another job in the private sector.”
This story is provided as a service of the Institute for Nonprofit News’ On the Ground news wire. The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a network of more than 475 independent, nonprofit newsrooms serving communities throughout the US, Canada, and globally. On the Ground is a service of INN, which aggregates the best of its members’ elections and political content, and provides it free for republication. Read more about INN here: https://inn.org/.
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