As Fargo VA staff cuts loom, advocates predict ‘debilitating consequences’ for veterans

May 21, 2025

Robin Huebner

FARGO — The Trump administration’s move to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the Veterans Health Administration nationwide will take away care and services from veterans and have “debilitating consequences,” according to local veterans advocates. Union representatives for the Fargo Veterans Affairs system and other supporters of area veterans met with The Forum Editorial Board on Thursday, May 15, to explain how President Donald Trump’s actions are harming veterans and why top VA leaders don’t feel they can speak out.

The plan to cut about 80,000 jobs from the VA’s service delivery system nationwide is part of Trump’s wide-ranging plan to reduce federal spending. John Evanson, president of the local American Federation of Government Employees 3884, said that would put staffing back to 2019 levels, before the VA opened new categories and services for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and burn pits.

“We’re going to lose services. There’s no way around it,” Evanson said. “Top management has got gag orders on and they’ve been told, ‘You don’t discuss this.’”

Currently, the Fargo VA Health Care System employs around 1,400 people across its footprint, Evanson said, including the VA Medical Center in north Fargo and outpatient facilities in other parts of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.

About 30% of those employees are themselves veterans, he said.

Going back to 2019 staff levels would mean eliminating 350 staff from that system, he said, to around 1,050 employees.

When cuts were announced in February, 14 local staff were let go through RIF or “reductions in force.” They were told there was “failure to perform,” when in fact, they had outstanding reviews, Evanson said.

The Forum sought comment from the Fargo VA at the time but did not receive one, after getting initial indications that it would respond.

Lawsuits filed across the country stopped the RIF actions, for now.

“It’s been like a game of whack-a-mole since this new administration came in,” Evanson said.

Twelve of the 14 RIF-ed employees have returned, while others have declined here and in other parts of the country, saying they did not want to return to that kind of environment.

“It’s hostile, it’s abusive. There’s no psychological safety,” Evanson said.

Skye Carpenter is a former VA employee who now works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is president of AFGE 3748.

As a veteran herself, she said even the threat of losing services is traumatizing.

“It has permanent, debilitating consequences to these veterans that can’t just be undone,” Carpenter said.

Rick Olek, a retired U.S. postal worker, sought care at the Fargo VA when he returned from service in Vietnam in 1972.

“It was not a very nice place to go,” Olek said, adding that he finally returned in the early 1990s after services had begun to improve.

Like many Vietnam veterans, Olek was exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical the U.S. government used to defoliate forests that can cause cancer, skin and neurological ailments, and other conditions.

Agent Orange disability was denied for years before the government acknowledged it.

The PACT Act of 2022, which expanded VA health care and benefits to veterans exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits and other toxic substances, prompted many more veterans to enroll for care.

Olek worries that with Trump’s staff cuts, it will be impossible for those new services and benefits to fully continue.

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