Veterans
We sent them to fight.
We owe them everything.
The VA lost more than 40,000 employees in a single year. Burn pit survivors wait months for benefits the law owes them. About 17.5 veterans die by suicide every day. Project 2025 treated the VA as a cost to be cut. Project 2029 treats it as a sacred promise to be kept.
The Crisis in Numbers
We are failing the people who served.
These are not abstract numbers. They are the direct result of deliberate policy choices.
VA employees lost in fiscal year 2025 - the first net workforce contraction in the department's 95-year history, including 3,000 nurses and 1,000 physicians
Veterans who die by suicide every day - a rate more than double that of non-veteran adults, with 6,398 veteran suicides recorded in 2023
Veterans experiencing homelessness on any given night, with 13,851 unsheltered - a number that will rise as housing support workers are terminated
Wasted on the Oracle-Cerner electronic health records system that caused patient safety incidents, violated disability access law, and was never fixed
Why This Happened
They called it efficiency. It was abandonment.
Project 2025 was clear about what it wanted for the VA. More political appointees. Fewer career civil servants. Faster privatization through the MISSION Act's community care rules. The administration put that blueprint straight into action. DOGE teams moved into the VA in early 2025. They began firing probationary employees across the department. The firing emails were identical form letters. Each said the worker's service was "not in the public interest." There was no individual cause, no performance basis, and no process. At one facility alone, 18 employees with top performance reviews got the same form letter on the same day.
By the end of fiscal year 2025, the VA had lost more than 40,000 employees. It was the first time the department's workforce had ever shrunk. The losses included about 3,000 registered nurses, 1,000 physicians, 700 social workers, and nearly 2,000 claims processors. Those claims processors had been hired to carry out the PACT Act. Congress passed that law in 2022. It delivers benefits to 3.5 million veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. Firing them did not cut red tape. It meant veterans who survived Fallujah and Bagram would wait years for benefits a law already promised them.
The privatization push made the damage worse. The Trump administration's FY2026 budget proposed a 67 percent increase in community care funding. Nearly 75 percent of all new medical spending would go to outside private providers, not VA facilities. This was a deliberate death spiral. As VA referrals drop, VA hospitals lose the patient numbers they need to keep specialized units open. Fewer patients justify closures. Closures justify more privatization. The end point is a VA that no longer works as a healthcare system. That was exactly the goal.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called the cuts "an attack on our veterans." She was right. The administration claimed to champion veterans. Yet the people it fired included veterans themselves. More than a quarter of the VA workforce served in uniform. The promise the nation makes to those who served is not a line item. It does not expire when an administration decides it costs too much.
What Project 2025 Did to Veterans
- ● Fired 40,000+ VA employees through DOGE with no individual cause or due process. That included the claims processors hired to deliver PACT Act benefits to burn pit veterans.
- ● Proposed a 67% increase in community care privatization funding. VA clinics got no matching investment. That set up the VA to collapse.
- ● Kept a $37 billion Oracle-Cerner EHR contract that caused patient safety incidents and broke disability access law. At the same time, cut the IT staff needed to manage it.
- ● Cut LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator jobs. Interrupted gender-affirming care for transgender veterans who were already in treatment.
- ● Cut suicide prevention coordinators and threatened Veterans Crisis Line staffing. Veterans already die by suicide at more than double the rate of other adults.
The Plan
What Project 2029 proposes.
Based on Chapter 20 (Department of Veterans Affairs) of Project 2029. Specific bills. Real legal authority. A plan built on one idea: this debt does not expire.
Halt Privatization and Restore the VA Workforce
Reinstate every unlawfully fired VA worker - and hire to meet the mandate
Immediately reinstate all VA employees terminated through DOGE-directed mass firings without individualized cause determinations, with full back pay and restoration of seniority under 5 U.S.C. § 7513. Within 90 days, issue a PACT Act Workforce Plan identifying every clinical and claims processing position required to meet statutory obligations - with minimum targets of 5,000 new claims processors, 3,000 new mental health providers, and 1,500 new toxic exposure specialists. Issue an executive order establishing the Veterans Health Administration as an essential government function that cannot be privatized except by act of Congress. Redirect the proposed $14.4 billion community care funding increase: 50 percent to VA clinical staffing, 30 percent to VA facility modernization, 20 percent to community care for veterans where VA direct care is genuinely not accessible.
PACT Act Full Implementation - The Toxic Exposure Claims Emergency
Burn pit survivors earned these benefits. Process their claims.
Establish a Toxic Exposure Claims Emergency Unit within the Veterans Benefits Administration with a mandate to eliminate the PACT Act claims backlog within 24 months. As of April 2025, approximately 230,000 claims had exceeded the 125-day standard adjudication window. Apply presumptive service connection automatically to all conditions listed in the PACT Act's statutory schedules - reversing the burden of proof from veteran to VA. Provide interim compensation to veterans with confirmed PACT Act-covered conditions pending final adjudication. Complete the Camp Lejeune Justice Act 90-day expedited claims timeline and extend Agent Orange presumptive coverage to all remaining eligible Blue Water Navy veterans. Direct the VA's Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation to identify additional conditions warranting presumptive coverage under 38 U.S.C. § 1113.
Zero-Delay Mental Health Access and Suicide Prevention
17.5 veteran suicides per day is a national emergency. Treat it as one.
Establish by executive directive that no enrolled veteran waits more than 14 days for an initial VA mental health appointment - and tie facility director performance evaluations to compliance. Fund the Veterans Crisis Line at a guaranteed minimum of $350 million annually, indexed to contact volume, and prohibit any cost-reduction initiative from affecting Crisis Line staffing without explicit congressional authorization. The Crisis Line received more than 1.3 million contacts in fiscal year 2025 - and DOGE cuts threatened its staff. Implement a voluntary firearms safety counseling program integrated into every VA primary care and mental health encounter, recognizing that 73.3 percent of veteran suicides involve firearms. Fund expansion of VA residential treatment programs for veterans with PTSD, TBI, and substance use disorder - the conditions most strongly associated with elevated suicide risk.
End Veteran Homelessness by 2030 - Housing First
No veteran should sleep outside. Make that a legal standard, not a slogan.
Commit to achieving functional zero veteran homelessness by 2030 - meaning every veteran experiencing homelessness is quickly connected to permanent housing with the supportive services needed to maintain stability. Fully fund HUD-VASH (authorized under 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(o)(19)) to house every veteran on the current waitlist within 18 months and eliminate the waitlist by 2027. The VA permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans in fiscal year 2025 - adequate funding scales this result. Fund the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program at a minimum of $750 million annually to reach the estimated 35,000 veterans at imminent risk of homelessness in any given year. Coordinate with HUD, HHS, and Labor on integrated veteran-specific programs addressing affordable housing production, substance use disorder treatment, and employment support.
Fix the Electronic Health Records System
A $37 billion failure that causes medication errors cannot continue
Conduct an immediate independent safety assessment of the Oracle-Cerner EHR system. Based on the documented record - cost overruns from $10 billion to $37 billion, patient safety incidents, and persistent violation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d) which requires federal systems to be accessible to veterans with disabilities - evaluate contract termination under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (48 C.F.R. Part 49). Immediately suspend all new deployment sites pending the assessment and halt the $100 million monthly payments to Oracle-Cerner during the pause. Commission a technical evaluation of open-source alternatives, including systems built on VA's proven VistA codebase. Enact an EHR Accountability Act requiring that any VA electronic health record system achieve full disability accessibility within 12 months of deployment, with contract termination as the penalty.
Women Veterans Parity and Military Sexual Trauma Act
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population - the VA must be built for them
Require every VA Medical Center to establish a dedicated Women's Health Center providing comprehensive primary care, reproductive health, obstetrics referral coordination, gynecology, mammography, and gender-specific mental health services - so that no woman veteran is required to travel to a separate facility for basic reproductive healthcare. Establish minimum staffing standards for military sexual trauma (MST) specialists at every VA Medical Center - minimum one full-time equivalent per 5,000 enrolled women veterans. Approximately 1 in 3 women veterans report experiencing MST. Eliminate the documentation requirement for MST-related disability claims and establish a rebuttable presumption of service connection for MST-related mental health conditions. Reinstate all LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator positions and restore gender-affirming care as a covered VA benefit for enrolled transgender veterans.
Take Action
Honor the commitment.
The people who served this country are owed more than a thank you. They are owed a government that keeps its word.
Vote for Veterans
Candidates who vote to cut VA funding, fire VA doctors and nurses, and privatize veterans' care should be voted out. The VA is a sacred obligation - not a budget problem to be solved.
Register to Vote →Demand Full VA Funding
Call your senators. Ask them to oppose any VA privatization, support advance appropriations for VA healthcare, and demand full PACT Act implementation for burn pit veterans.
Find Your Rep →Read Chapter 20
The full Department of Veterans Affairs reform plan - every policy, legal citation, and implementation timeline. Built on the premise that promises made to veterans are not optional.
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