Video: Fired Veterans & Military Spouses Detail Devastating Impacts of Trump-Musk Mass Firings of Federal Employees at Blumenthal's First Shadow Hearing

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today led his first shadow hearing to examine the Administration’s mass firings and their impacts on veterans and their families, who make up one-third of the federal workforce. Blumenthal was joined by fellow Senate Democrats and witnesses, who included veterans who worked in the federal government and were illegally fired by the Trump Administration.

“These firings have disproportionately affected our VA and veterans’ workforce, and the harm to them individually will become painfully clear today,” said Blumenthal during his opening remarks. “They have suffered from uncertainty, from financial distress, from emotional hardship, in ways that I think Elon Musk and Donald Trump need to understand.”

Blumenthal underscored his disappointment that Republicans have yet to publicly join the fight to defend veterans against the harmful cuts from Musk and Trump. “This issue should be bipartisan. This is about America, as Cory Booker said yesterday. It’s not red or blue—it’s right and wrong. And what’s happening now is really wrong. And I also want to make the point we have been joined over the course of the hearing by 13 members of the United States Senate which I think reflects on our side the level of concern and interest in this issue.”

During the Senator’s questioning, Marine Corps veteran and military spouse Kira Carrigan emphasized the devasting impact her abrupt and indiscriminate termination by DOGE from a remote position at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is having on military families like hers: “Military spouses have a 21% unemployment rate and I’m one of them now again… It is so difficult to find employment. To find stability…One of the consistent ways to find employment [as a military spouse] is through the federal government…[Federal employment] is not only there for [military spouses]—but it’s advertised to us…You are told to apply for these positions…When we [Permanent Change of Station] again, there’s not going to be the opportunity to have a federal government positions, because now we’re under a hiring freeze. It’s not even something that will be available to us.”

Air Force veteran Shernice Mundell, who was illegally fired after starting a new position at the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed DOGE’s “fire first, analyze later” strategy: “A lot of people get it confused when they say OPM is the one that’s doing the firing. It’s not OPM—it’s DOGE. And they’re just going under the guise of being OPM.” She also confirmed no one from DOGE ever reached out to understand her role, or the role of her office at OPM helping retired postal service employees with health care benefits.

Later on in the hearing, Ms. Mundell stressed the difficulties faced by her and her colleagues who were illegally and indiscriminately fired by Musk’s DOGE: “We’re all going to need some counseling. Mental health assistance…I just want to find a new job where I can provide for my family.”

Blumenthal underscored the disgraceful, shameless nature of these firings of veterans and military spouses: “[The Trump Administration is] not even saying thank you for your service. They’re just saying, you’re fired…Ms. Mundell was fired in a pre-recorded video. She wasn’t even given the courtesy of a human being telling her she was fired, with a large number of employees like her, effective immediately. After being promoted, presumably because she was doing well, and without the knowledge of her supervisor…It’s a disservice not only to her, but to all of the people that depended, and still depend, on her.”

Blumenthal also invited Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins and acting Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Charles Ezell to testify, but they failed to respond to Congressional inquiry.

The Trump Administration’s mass terminations have already led to the unprecedented firing of more than 6,000 veterans and last month, an internal memo leaked the Trump Administration’s plans to cut more than 80,000 VA employees, which would include at least 20,000 veterans, who make up 25 percent of VA’s workforce. Blumenthal and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats are leading the effort to push back against the Trump Administration’s mass firings and cuts at VA. Blumenthal and 21 of his Democratic colleagues introduced the Putting Veterans First Act – comprehensive legislation to protect veterans, military spouses, and VA employees indiscriminately targeted in the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cuts across the federal government.

Witnesses included veterans working in the federal government, including at VA, who were indiscriminately fired by the Trump Administration, a federal employee assigned to head information security for VA.gov who was indiscriminately fired by the Trump Administration, and Vote Vets’ Major General (ret.) Paul Eaton.

The full text of Blumenthal’s opening is copied below and a video link is available here.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Welcome to all of the attendees, many of you veterans, thank you for your service. Welcome to our witnesses, we are very pleased that Major General Eaton could join us on behalf of VoteVets here in person and Shernice Mundell, an Air Force veteran as well. And we are joined remotely by Kira Carrigan, Gabriel D’Alatri, and Jonathan Kamens, and Luke Graziani who are going to be with us remotely.

I have never done a shadow hearing as Chair before. I’ve chaired formal hearings, I view this shadow hearing as significant in fact as significant as a real hearing would be. And of course my preference would have been to have this hearing in the VA Committee, but it is focused on other issues rather than what I think brings us here today. Which is the real life impacts of these cuts in funding, freezes in hiring, and firings of thousands of VA employees. We don’t know exactly how many, we’ve been told 2,400, and that ultimately the number will be 80,000. We know that contracts have been canceled, the number we hear is 875, but we don’t know the exact number. What we don’t know is as really abhorrent as what we do. And the fact that we don’t know it is repugnant not just to this committee, it is an insult and injury to all of our veterans. And we will be holding more of these shadow hearings to explore the harm that has been done hopefully with VA leadership, I’ve asked Secretary Collins to be here today, invited him, but obviously he is not. And I am hopeful that he will give us a date certain when he will be before the committee but we again don’t know, we don’t know when that will be.

We know for sure that veterans are a major part of our federal workforce and so the firings across federal agencies have affected literally thousands of veterans. And we know that about a quarter to a third of employees in the VA are veterans, these firings have disproportionally affected our VA and veteran’s workforce and the harm to them individually will become painfully clear today. Painfully is the word that I would use, they have suffered from uncertainty, from financial distress, from emotional hardship in ways that I think Elon Musk and Donald Trump need to understand, if they have any ability to understand, but the American people for sure need to understand because they will and have the ability to understand.

Every single agency in our government and every single taxpayer benefits from the veterans who are employed right now, experienced, talented, and dedicated members of our federal workforce. Nearly 30% of VA employees are veterans themselves and more are military spouses, parents, caregivers, and children who have served. The Administration and Elon Musk are tearing down the VA and civil service at every turn, they’re firing thousands of employees, freezing the recruitment of critical positions, and firing independent Inspectors General. If they were really serious about cutting waste and fraud they wouldn’t have fired Mike Missal, the Inspector General, Mike Missal has saved literally hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars for the VA.

My Democratic colleagues are joining us today and I thank them, I want to just say one more point and then turn to our witnesses because you are the most important part of this proceeding. My bill, the Putting Veterans First bill, would reverse these firings of VA employees and of all veterans in the federal workforce, it would give them rights to repeal any future terminations, it would require individual performance based standards for any termination, it would stop the collection of information, private, sensitive, confidential information by Elon Musk, and it would in affect stop this incredible damage to veterans that is happening in real time to our federal healthcare for veterans, to benefits, and compensation under the PACT Act and other kinds of compensation that they have earned, they deserve it, we came together on a bipartisan basis to make it possible for them in the PACT Act and other measures and we just need to continue to fight these indiscriminate cuts to the VA, they are draconian and unacceptable. My hope was that perhaps we would be joined by some of our Republican colleagues, maybe we will in the future, but right now I am immensely grateful for Senator Kaine, Senator Gallego, Senator Hirono who have joined us now and others who will be joining us in the future.

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