Watch Senator Rosen’s Full Remarks HERE.
WASHINGTON DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) took to the Senate floor to oppose the actions of the Trump Administration and Elon Musk to mass fire employees working at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In her speech, Senator Rosen called for them to reverse course on these layoffs, and emphasized the impact that these cuts have had on Nevada veterans and their ability to access the care and benefits they earned through their service.
Below are excerpts of Senator Rosen’s floor remarks:
Mr. President,
I rise today to speak out against the harmful actions taken by the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
What they’re doing, it isn’t about “government efficiency.”
They’re mass firing the men and women who help provide vital services that countless Nevadans rely on, from Medicaid to food assistance.
And this is being felt in nearly every corner of our country.
It’s impacting our veterans who rely on the VA, our seniors who rely on Social Security and Medicare, our families who rely on Medicaid and CHIP for their kids’ health care, and so many others.
The actions taken by the Trump Administration and Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, are tearing at the fabric of American society.
And this is no way to run a country, and the people in my state, they’re being hurt in the process.
And so today, I want to focus on a specific aspect of the Trump firings: how it’s impacting veterans. Not just veterans across the country, but particularly those veterans in Nevada.
Just yesterday, it was reported that Elon Musk and his “DOGE” tech bros are planning to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs. 80,000.
This is in addition to the 1,000 VA employees they have already laid off, which included people who staffed the Veterans Crisis Hotline.
And so, maybe Mr. Musk and his team, his team of, like I said, teenybopper tech bros, they don’t understand the magnitude of their actions. So, let me explain to them what the VA does. What the VA means.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides critical health care to the men and women who were willing to sacrifice their very lives for our nation, and for their families. It provides them with the benefits that they have earned and that they, frankly, deserve.
It is quite literally the least that we can, as a nation, do for our veterans.
Firing those employees who work at the VA will hurt our veterans, plain and simple.
It will hurt veterans not only because they rely on VA staff, but because many of those who work at the VA are themselves veterans. The VA [is] the largest employer of veterans in this nation.
[…]
You know, many veterans already face significant challenges in accessing the care and the services that they need: long wait times for medical appointments, overwhelmed but dedicated staff, and a system already stretched thin that they have created barriers that delay essential care.
And these layoffs, these layoffs, the Trump layoffs, they’ll only worsen an already difficult situation.
[…]
With these positions being eliminated, there will be fewer hands to process claims, handle scheduling, and make sure that our veterans are getting the care and attention that they deserve.
This is going to lead to even longer wait times for veterans, further delays in access to care, resulting in potentially worse health outcomes for our veterans.
It is simply unconscionable that, after years of sacrifice and service, that our veterans will suffer due to cuts being made by people like Elon Musk, who were never elected by the American people.
So I urge this administration to take immediate action to halt and reverse these unnecessary and, frankly, unjust layoffs.
We must always stand up for our veterans. We must always stand up for the workers who serve them.
God bless our veterans. God bless our troops.
I thank you, Mr. President.
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