Looming federal cuts lay heavy burden on Kansas City veterans

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - As federal cuts and legal battles loom, many of Kansas City’s veterans are left wondering how the programs or benefits they rely on will be affected.

The uncertainty puts a spotlight on a long-standing promise between the U.S. government and those who swore an oath to protect it. President Abraham Lincoln promised in part “to care for him who shall have borne the battle,” in his second presidential inaugural address.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to help soldiers who returned from war get an education or pay for a home with the passage of the G.I. Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act).

Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all maintained this promise by expanding access to care within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Now, President Trump’s second term in office is focused on a different promise - a promise of a more efficient government. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is working to cut jobs and federal contracts.

Nationally, veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce. Meanwhile, the federal government is an economic force in the metro as it employs nearly 30,000 Kansas Citians. DOGE’s suggested cuts are disproportionately placing veterans in the crosshairs.

Veterans recently rallied in Kansas City, as well as at the capitols in Topeka, Kansas, and Jefferson City, Missouri.

“It is true there is waste within every department within the federal government,” Jason Bradshaw told fellow veterans in Jefferson City. “We should work to eliminate waste, but this is not the way.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has swept the federal workforce with mass cuts to personnel and contracts. Around 30% of those employees are veterans who have now been placed in the crosshairs.

Shayne Mitchell swore an oath to serve three times as a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He left a private I.T. job with Amazon to serve his country - this time at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service in Kansas City.

The agency processes payments for 250 federal departments, such as federal income tax refunds, social security benefits and veterans’ pay.

“If Social Security goes down, that’s very bad,” Mitchell told KCTV5 News. “If Medicare doesn’t pay its bills on time, that’s bad.”

Mitchell made sure the servers that kept those payments going did not crash - until February when he received an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

“A lot of folks weren’t really anticipating that short-staffed offices and people who, you know, you’re essential [would be cut],” Mitchell stated. “I was essential enough to show up during a blizzard. So, you know, but we’re not essential enough to not get hit by this random column that you are in some spreadsheet.”

Mitchell said two-thirds of his coworkers who had been cut were veterans. It’s a change to the workforce, he believes, that infringes on America’s promise to a protected class.

“Going back to 1944, every single president - Kennedy, Nixon, Eisenhower - every single one of those, honored the commitments and didn’t think that our society couldn’t afford to honor those commitments until February 2025,” Mitchell said.

Federal district courts have since called for the government to rehire laid-off probationary workers. Mitchell was reinstated and put on administrative leave.

Mitchell told KCTV5 in an email after the ruling: “My department and our mission were understaffed. I don’t belong on administrative leave, I belong back on the job site.”

Looming cuts are also set to affect the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“For many years, veterans have been asking for a more efficient, accountable and transparent VA. This Administration is finally going to give veterans what they want,” VA Secretary Doug Collins promised.

Secretary Collins announced a goal to reduce his department’s workforce to its 2019 numbers. That is a 15% reduction that affects around 72,000 employees.

KCTV5 spoke with an employee of the Kansas City VA about the reality of these reductions on the condition of anonymity. They called the Secretary’s directive “brazen.”

The source said that in 2024, the KCVA had already cut its workforce down to the same levels it saw in 2020. As for local VA contracts, services like transportation, food programs and sterile cleaning services could be on the chopping block.

Vietnam War veterans Eli Silva and Gerald Caldwell told us they rely on the VA for care and have already seen changes. Caldwell recently underwent laser eye surgery with the VA.

“They really did a good job, but one half of it, I wasn’t able to - I’m supposed to go back and get it done,” Caldwell said. “But I wasn’t able to - this probably had something to do with the cuts at the VA service. He wanted me back in two weeks and they delayed me two months.”

Caldwell was also exposed to Agent Orange during his service. As a result, he and Silva share concerns about the implementation of the PACT Act. The law expanded eligibility for VA healthcare to veterans exposed to toxic substances such as burn pits and Agent Orange. The VA had been hiring staff to meet the new demand.

“The VA was, it was my understanding, in the process of expanding the workforce to handle the new patients, and now they’re talking about reducing it down,” Silva said. “That’s going to hurt us.”

Pres. Trump expanded VA healthcare in his first term by signing the Mission Act of 2018 into law. Both veterans said they did not expect potential cuts to Veterans Affairs in the president’s second term.

“Well, you know, 6% of the country joined the armed forces to protect our constitution, our freedoms,” Silva continued. “And, I think the country owes them to take care of them as they come back.”

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate committee on Veterans’ affairs, said VA reforms “must be thoughtful, transparent, carried out in close coordination with this committee, with our colleagues and with stakeholders.”

He went on to say he is drafting legislation “that would require the VA’s workforce planning to follow that model, because Congress must play a significant role in strategically shaping VA workforce decisions to achieve the right outcomes for veterans and their families.”

Sen. Moran said VA Secretary Collins has agreed to testify before the committee.

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