The counselor and top attorney representing President Donald Trump raised questions Tuesday about the the capability and willingness of veterans to work after an unknown number have been fired from jobs as part of sweeping layoffs that continue to reduce the federal government’s footprint.
Fielding questions outside the White House, Alina Habba was asked by one reporter whether the president is “starting to think about some of those veterans [who have lost jobs] … and what the administration can do to at least help salvage their lives.”
“Well as you know we care about veterans tremendously. That’s something the president has always cared about,” Habba responded. “But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work. That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or [are] not willing to come to work.”
Military veterans, who account for nearly one-third of the federal workforce, are believed to be disproportionately affected by the continued layoffs, which have prompted concern and drawn the ire of numerous veteran organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Paralyzed Veterans of America.
“Since the federal government is the single largest employer of veterans in the nation, it’s veterans who are being indiscriminately harmed in this bull-’DOGE’-ing of the federal workforce,” Al Lipphardt, a Vietnam War veteran and VFW national leader, said in a Feb. 25 statement aimed at billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 636,937 veterans were employed by the federal government as of September 2021. Nearly 90% of those veterans received veterans’ preference, a policy that gives job candidates a boost in the hiring process if they are disabled veterans or served on active duty during certain dates or military campaigns.
Half of the veterans in the federal workforce as of September 2021 were designated as disabled, meaning they were discharged from the military with a service-connected disability.
Habba’s comments, meanwhile, came just hours before Trump was slated to deliver remarks to a joint session of Congress.
A number of Senate Democrats, including Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., invited disabled veterans who have lost jobs in recent weeks as guests to attend the speech.
Schumer announced Monday that he would be attending the remarks alongside Alissa Ellman, a disabled Army veteran who was exposed to toxins from burn pits in Afghanistan.
Ellman, who worked for the Veterans Affairs in Buffalo, New York, “was callously fired without warning this past week,” a release from Schumer’s office said.
“Firing her, firing veterans and slashing thousands from the VA workforce is outrageous and should be reversed. This is not how you treat our veterans — it’s not just unacceptable, it’s un-American,” Schumer said in the release.
“DOGE cuts and Trump’s funding freeze have created chaos in Western [New York] and kneecapped far too many vets. I am all for cutting out inefficiency, but you use a scalpel, not a chainsaw. Jobs and care for our veterans in Upstate [New York] is not government waste.”
Military Times Senior Editor Nikki Wentling contributed to this report.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
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