HENRIETTA, N.Y. – As the Trump administration works to shrink the size of the federal workforce, some of the cuts to the Veterans Administration are hitting here at home.

Nationwide, more than 1,000 employees were let go last week. Those dismissed were non-union employees who had served less than two years and were not considered to be “mission-critical.”

A sign at the Rochester Vet Center, which offers Veterans, service members, and their families counseling services at no cost, says the office manager has been fired as a result of the executive order regarding a reduction in workforce.

Over the weekend, VA Secretary Doug Collins tried calming concerns about what else may be in store for the agency. “Look, when you’re doing things, you’re making moves and you’re making good moves, motion causes friction,” Collins said in a video posted to his YouTube page. He’s telling veterans the job cuts will ultimately help them. “We’ve took almost $98 million that were being spent elsewhere and put it toward Veterans’ care and veteran facing, those are the kind of things we’re doing, so it’s not being cut.”

Nick Stefanovic is the Director of Monroe County Veteran Services, he has been getting calls and emails from worried veterans. Their biggest concern is about their benefits.

“I did check in, as recently as today with our federal partners, and there is no plan to change disability benefits,” Stefanovic says. “So while veterans have had some concerns over the past month or two about whether or not their benefits will remain I have every reason to believe that benefits will remain the same, the financial benefits.”

And when it comes to medical care, Stefanovic says, “I have not yet seen an accessibility issue and my hope is that they won’t create an accessibility issue because I love being able to tell veterans in our area that if they do have a problem with accessibility that it’s just them and that we can help them get access and that it’s not a systemic issue in our area.”

The larger concern at this point is really for agencies that get VA funding to run other types of programs that do outreach to and serve veterans.

Laura Heltz, the Executive Director of the Rochester Veterans Outreach Center, says so far, it’s still business as usual with funding requests and reimbursements. “I think most people recognize the tremendous value of supporting those who have served and sacrificed so much for our nation and so, we’re not feeling quite as much angst about potential changing priorities,” she tells News10NBC.

But they always have a variety of funding sources lined up, just in case. “We have a very generous group of donors here in the Rochester area and across the state…we’ve got foundations, corporations, third-party events, and so that’s one of the things that I think sort of helps us through some of these challenges,” Heltz explains.

Monroe County has one of the highest veteran populations in all of New York state, so, the agencies, organizations, and people who work with vets locally are keeping a very close eye on any changes coming from Washington.

Congressman Joe Morelle (D, Rochester) is holding a telephone town hall on Wednesday to discuss the workforce reduction mandates and other recent executive orders. If you’d like to participate, you can sign up for the event by clicking here. 

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