Change Is Scary. But the VA Reorganization Might Actually Help.
Let me start with this: I understand why people are uneasy.
Change is scary.
Layoffs are terrifying.
And headlines are very good at pressing every panic button we have.
I do not say this theoretically. I understand layoffs the hard way. I understand what it feels like to read an email more than once because your brain refuses to accept the words. I understand the knot in your stomach that comes from realizing stability just became optional.
So when I see headlines about reorganization at the Department of Veterans Affairs, I understand why people immediately jump to fear. We have learned, often through painful experience, that “restructuring” sometimes translates to chaos, lost services, or people slipping through cracks that already exist.
That concern is valid. It deserves respect, not dismissal.
That said, fear should not prevent us from actually looking at what is happening.
Headlines Are Designed to Alarm, Not Inform
News headlines are built to capture attention, not nuance. Words like “shakeup,” “overhaul,” and “massive reorganization” generate clicks, even when the underlying policy changes are far more technical and far less dramatic.
That does not mean there is nothing at stake. It means we owe it to ourselves and to the veterans and families impacted to look beyond the headline and read the structure.
Because sometimes reorganization is not about cutting services. Sometimes it is about unwinding temporary systems that were never meant to be permanent.
What the Job Cuts Actually Look Like
According to reporting by The Washington Post, most of the planned cuts will affect unfilled positions, including nursing, physician, and support staff roles. The paper cited unnamed sources and an internal memo it reviewed.
VA spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz confirmed the cuts, stating that the agency plans to eliminate approximately 26,400 unfilled positions. He described these roles as “mostly COVID era positions that are no longer necessary.”
That context matters.
During the pandemic, the VA was required by law to prepare for and accept patients from the civilian population during a national emergency. In response, the VA opened and funded more than 30,000 positions to meet anticipated surge capacity across its hospital systems.
That surge never fully materialized at the scale expected. The pandemic emergency has ended, but the staffing authorizations and budget assumptions remained.
What we are seeing now is not a sudden abandonment of care. We are seeing the unwind of emergency era programs that were built quickly, expanded aggressively, and never designed to exist indefinitely.
In other words, this is the long tail of “I’m from the government, I’m here to help” programs that were created during a crisis and are now being dismantled in a post emergency environment.
This Is Not the First Round of Reductions
It is also important to note that this is not happening in isolation.
Earlier this year, the VA eliminated approximately 30,000 positions largely through buyouts and attrition as part of a broader reorganization. Those reductions were not mass firings. They were structured exits aimed at reducing overhead without destabilizing operations.
This next phase continues that approach by focusing primarily on positions that were funded but never filled.
That distinction does not erase concern, but it does change the narrative from “mass layoffs” to “right sizing after an unprecedented national emergency.”
The VA Was Built for a Different Era
The VA today is not serving the same population it was designed for decades ago.
We now have:
More veterans with complex, long term medical needs
More survivors navigating benefits across multiple agencies
More claims tied to toxic exposure and delayed onset conditions
More digital expectations layered onto analog systems
And yet many internal structures still reflect a time when claims were simpler, communication was slower, and coordination across offices was optional rather than essential.
When a system grows rapidly under emergency conditions and never recalibrates, inefficiency is not a failure. It is a guarantee.
Reorganization, when done thoughtfully, is how you correct that.
Closing Some Offices and Opening Others Is Not a Loss. It Is a Rebalance.
The VA currently operates 18 regional offices. Those offices were not placed based on today’s population trends, demand, or the geographic concentration of complex claims.
Closing offices in areas of lower need while opening or expanding offices in areas of higher demand is not abandonment. It is alignment.
Veterans and survivors should not wait longer simply because resources are anchored to outdated maps. Physical buildings do not serve veterans. Outcomes do.
Fewer Approval Layers Can Mean Faster, Fairer Decisions
Another part of this reorganization that deserves attention is the effort to reduce how many people must approve a claim.
More approval layers do not automatically mean better decisions. In practice, they often mean delays, conflicting interpretations, and responsibility so diluted that no one truly owns the outcome.
Reducing unnecessary approval layers can:
Shorten processing times
Improve accountability
Reduce contradictory reviews
Get benefits to veterans and survivors faster
Streamlining authority does not mean lowering standards. It means removing friction that never protected claimants in the first place.
Streamlining Is Not a Guarantee, but It Is an Opportunity
Streamlining processes is not automatically good or bad. It depends entirely on execution. Poorly designed streamlining creates shortcuts that hurt people. Thoughtfully designed streamlining removes obstacles that never should have existed.
The VA’s challenge has never been a lack of dedicated employees. It has been a system that often traps good people inside bad processes.
Reorganization creates an opportunity to fix that. It does not guarantee success, but refusing to try guarantees failure.
Skepticism Is Healthy. Cynicism Is Not Strategy.
We should absolutely be watching this closely. We should be asking:
How will this impact frontline care delivery?
Will claims processing improve or stall?
Are survivor services strengthened or sidelined?
Is institutional knowledge being preserved?
But assuming failure before the work begins does not protect veterans or families. It just ensures disengagement.
Change Is Not the Enemy. Neglect Is.
The VA does not need to be preserved exactly as it is. Anyone who has waited years for a claim decision or tried to untangle survivor benefits knows that.
What veterans and families need is not stasis. We need systems that work. We need accountability, transparency, and modernization that actually reaches the people it is supposed to serve.
That requires change. Sometimes uncomfortable change.
The real risk is not reorganization. The real risk is pretending that broken systems will fix themselves if we just stop touching them.
Change is scary.
But stagnation is worse.
And this reorganization, if done right, could be a step toward a VA that functions more like a support system and less like an obstacle course.
We should be cautious. We should be informed. And we should stay engaged.
Because fear should never be the loudest voice in a conversation about improving care for those who served and the families who carry the cost long after the uniform comes off.
