Firing Veterans Crisis Line employees would trigger notifications to Congress under a bill being introduced by a Democratic senator aiming to give those employees more protections against being terminated.
The bill comes after the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged in a letter to senators last month that 24 support employees at the suicide helpline were “erroneously” told they were being let go during mass Trump administration firings at the beginning of the year. The VA sent the letter on the mistaken termination notices after accusing Democrats of fearmongering about crisis line employees being fired.
Under the bill being introduced Wednesday by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., the VA would have to notify Congress at least 48 hours before firing any Veterans Crisis Line employees and provide lawmakers with the justification for firing them.
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“Whether VA Secretary [Doug] Collins continues to weaken the Veterans Crisis Line program — or follows through on his promise to fix his mistake of firing of Veterans Crisis Line staff — the bottom line is this: Secretary Collins should transparently report VCL personnel and performance data to Congress,” Duckworth, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel who lost both her legs serving in Iraq, said in a statement. “The American people deserve to judge for themselves whether Secretary Collins is actually fulfilling his claims to restore VCL resources — and Congress must be able to hold the Trump administration accountable if it fails to do so.”
The bill is not likely to become law while Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, but Democrats have been finding ways to use their legislative proposals to needle the GOP on veterans being hurt by the Trump administration’s mass firings across the government.
For example, in a government funding fight earlier this year, Democrats secured a vote on an amendment from Duckworth that would have reinstated all veterans fired from the federal government, getting every Republican senator on record voting against the amendment.
The Trump administration devoted much of its first 100 days to shrinking the size of the federal government, with President Donald Trump empowering billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to take a sledgehammer to government agencies.
Among the administration’s first efforts was targeting workers who hadn’t yet earned employment protections — probationary employees who were within a year or two of starting work, being promoted or transferring.
At the VA, about 2,400 probationary employees were fired in two batches in February.
Shortly after the probationary firings started, reports emerged that the terminations included employees at the VCL, a key resource for veterans who may be considering suicide. In particular, Duckworth said she was aware of at least two support staff members being fired.
At the time, Collins accused Democrats of spreading “whoppers” and insisted that no one who answered the phone was fired — without directly addressing whether support staff necessary to keep the hotline running were fired.
But in a letter to senators last month reviewed by Military.com, Collins admitted that 24 VCL support staff were indeed sent termination notices.
Those firings were later reversed, and all VCL employees have been reinstated at the same position they previously held, Collins added in the letter.
“Everything I do is in pursuit of ensuring veterans receive the care and services they deserve and instilling a lasting culture of caring, customer services and accountability at VA that focuses on always putting veterans first,” Collins wrote in the letter. “Ensuring the VCL is always accessible 24/7 is one of the department’s top priorities.”
At a contentious Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, Duckworth pressed Collins on the issue, saying she was aware of at least one former supervisor at the VCL who has yet to be reinstated.
Collins agreed with Duckworth that support staff are as important to running the VCL as phone responders, saying “that’s why we brought them back.” Still, he continued to stress that no responders were fired.
“I will not accept the premise, when it was given, that people were not being answered on the call line when they came,” Collins said. “That is not true.”
In addition to putting new guardrails on firing VCL employees, Duckworth’s bill would require the VA to submit a monthly report to Congress assessing the performance of the hotline, including the average time callers are on hold and the volume of unanswered calls.
The department would also have to submit a report to Congress breaking down — by job category, probationary status and veterans status — how many VCL employees there were on the day of Trump’s inauguration, how many were fired in February and how many employees there are now.
The VCL bill is a part of a series of veterans legislation Duckworth is introducing this week that also includes a measure to strengthen union protections for VA employees.
The VA Employees Fairness Act was introduced in previous years by former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, but its reintroduction by Duckworth comes as the Trump administration has been trying to weaken federal employee unions. The bill would expand collective bargaining rights for VA medical professionals who right now have some limitations on what they are allowed to negotiate over.
“This administration cannot continue to slash and burn the VA in the dark,” Duckworth said in her statement. “As DOGE cuts continue, it’s as urgent as ever that Congress empowers VA health care professionals with the same bargaining rights and protections as other federal employees so they can speak out freely against any problems or challenges they’re enduring at this critical time for the VA.”
Veterans and service members experiencing a mental health emergency can call the Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255, and via chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.
Related: VA Crisis Line Employees Among Those Fired Amid Federal Workforce Purge