SRES 105 — A resolution condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families.

Summary

Expresses the sense of the Senate that mass terminations of Department of Veterans Affairs employees in February 2025 should be condemned as carried out without adequate justification or analysis of impacts on veterans and their families.
States that the terminations have harmed veterans' access to essential services and the Department's ability to recruit and retain employees.
Calls for the reinstatement of all Department of Veterans Affairs employees affected by the terminations.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Sen. Blumenthal, Richard (D-CT)

32 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Richard Blumenthal’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT $9,500
FREEPOINT COMMODITIES LLC $6,600
ALIX PARTNERS $6,600
PALANTIR $6,600
KRUX INC. $6,600

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Richard Blumenthal → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

Mar 4, 2025 Referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. (text: CR S1500) · senate
Mar 4, 2025 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 4, 2025

Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Lujan, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Warnock, Ms. Klobuchar, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Alsobrooks, Mr. Kelly, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Peters, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Booker, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Warner, Ms. Smith, Mr. Padilla, and Mr. Heinrich) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

RESOLUTION

Condemning the mass terminations of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families.

Whereas veterans make up approximately 30 percent of the Federal workforce, including nearly 26 percent of the workforce of the Department of Veterans Affairs and 45 percent of the workforce of the Department of Defense; Whereas more than 642,000 veterans are continuing their public service through careers in the Federal Government; Whereas veterans bring invaluable experience, including technical expertise, training, security clearances, and commitment to service, to their work as Federal employees; Whereas, on February 13, 2025, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, announced the termination of 1,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs; Whereas, on February 24, 2025, Secretary Collins terminated an additional 1,400 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs; Whereas United States Senators have, in pursuit of their oversight duties, attempted to obtain detailed information from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding these terminations, including any analysis of the impacts on veterans, confirmation that the terminations did not affect essential services like call centers, homeless programs, mental health care, transition assistance, claims processing, tribal health, and veterans education benefits, involvement of unelected, unauthorized, non-Department of Veterans Affairs personnel in the decisionmaking process, and how much the Department of Veterans Affairs spent recruiting and hiring these employees and will now spend covering their workloads, but have yet to receive that information; Whereas the mass terminations of employees of the Federal Government are damaging the economic security and morale of veterans and their families; Whereas these terminations are harming the trust of veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and harming the ability of the Department to recruit and retain employees; Whereas gainful employment and economic security is a chief social determinant of health; and Whereas veterans and employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have expressed concerns regarding the effect of these terminations, including—

(1) the suspension of service lines, beds, and operating rooms at hospitals and clinics of the Department;

(2) the cancellation or postponement of mammogram and other time- sensitive appointments;

(3) the reduction of support lines for caregivers;

(4) the termination of Veterans Crisis Line employees;

(5) the termination of employees performing critical research at the Department;

(6) the termination of cyber security personnel protecting websites of the Department; and

(7) the termination of Vet Center staff: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That is the sense of the Senate that—

(1) mass terminations of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out with no justification or analysis of the impact on veterans and their families should be condemned; and

(2) all affected employees should be reinstated. <all>

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