Outside the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer sounded the alarm over a Trump administration proposal known as “DOGE,” which he says would cut more than 80,000 jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs—jeopardizing health care access, gutting essential services, and putting VA operations throughout Upstate New York at risk.
Schumer said the cuts would jeopardize care for more than 33,000 veterans in the Rochester-Finger Lakes region alone and leave VA staff—many of whom are veterans themselves—overwhelmed and uncertain about their futures.
“This is not how you treat our veterans,” Schumer said. “Firing over 80,000 VA workers, including crisis line responders and addiction services staff, is not just unacceptable—it’s un-American. These cuts risk longer wait times, reduced services, and denied care for the very people we pledged to support.”
Local VA employees echoed those fears. Ronnie Orlowski, President of AFGE Local 3306 representing Canandaigua VA workers, said recent layoffs have already caused chaos. Earlier this year, nine Veterans Crisis Line workers were terminated without warning, only to be reinstated after public backlash. “We are literally on the front lines saving lives, yet we’re working under the threat of being fired again,” Orlowski said.
The impact is already visible. At the Bath VA facility, layoffs have affected the detox and rehab center, a critical treatment location for veterans referred by Monroe County’s Veterans Court. At the Rochester Veterans Mental Health Center, staffing instability has disrupted operations.
Schumer pointed out that these cuts come at a time when the VA should be expanding, not shrinking. Following the passage of the PACT Act, which Schumer championed, the VA enrolled over 400,000 new veterans between March 2023 and March 2024 and hired more than 60,000 staff to meet rising demand. Slashing the workforce now, Schumer warned, would erase those gains.
“These job cuts don’t eliminate waste—they eliminate care,” he said. “You use a scalpel to cut inefficiency, not a chainsaw.”
Veterans and local officials joined Schumer in opposing the layoffs. Wayne Thompson, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Ontario County, called the cuts “detrimental” and said they would overburden the remaining staff. Nick Stefanovic, Director of the Monroe County Veterans Service Agency, warned of “devastating consequences” for local rehab and mental health services.
VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz issued FingerLakes1.com the following statement:
“Imagine how much better off Veterans would be if Sen. Schumer cared as much about fixing the department as he does about protecting its broken bureaucracy. Here are the facts: VA health care has been on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list for more than a decade, and GAO says VA faces ‘system-wide challenges in overseeing patient safety and access to care, hiring critical staff, and meeting future infrastructure needs.’ Under Secretary Collins, VA is working hard to fix these and other issues. Unfortunately, many in the media, government union bosses and some in Congress are fighting to keep in place the broken status quo. Our message to Veterans is simple: Despite major opposition from those who don’t want to change a thing at VA, we will reform the department to make it work better for Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors.”
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