Veterans Crisis Line Employees Were Caught in Mass Firings. A New Bill Aims for Staff Protections.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins takes his seat
at the witness table during a Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing to
examine veterans at the forefront, focusing on the future at the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in
Washington DC. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Posted: May 8, 2025 --- Military.com | By Rebecca
Kheel
Published May 7, 2025 at 1:55pm ET
Firing Veterans Crisis Line employees would trigger
notifications to Congress under a bill being introduced by a Democratic senator
aiming to give those employees more protections against being terminated. The
bill comes after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acknowledged in a letter to U.S. Senators last month that 24 support employees
at the suicide helpline were "erroneously" told they were being let
go during mass Trump administration firings at the beginning of the year.
The VA sent the letter on the mistaken termination
notices after accusing Democrats of fearmongering about crisis line employees
being fired. Under the bill being introduced Wednesday by U.S. Senator Tammy
Duckworth, D-Ill., the VA would have to notify Congress at least 48 hours
before firing any Veterans Crisis Line employees and provide lawmakers with the
justification for firing them.
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"Whether VA Secretary [Doug] Collins continues to
weaken the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) program -- or follows through on
his promise to fix his mistake of firing of Veterans Crisis Line staff -- the
bottom line is this: Secretary Collins should transparently report VCL
personnel and performance data to Congress," Duckworth, a retired National
Guard Lieutenant Colonel who lost both her legs serving in
Iraq, said.
"The American people deserve to judge for themselves
whether Secretary Collins is actually fulfilling his claims to restore VCL
resources -- and the U.S. Congress must be able to hold the Trump
administration accountable if it fails to do so." The
bill is not likely to become law while Republicans control both chambers of
Congress and the White House, but Democrats have been finding ways to use their
legislative proposals to needle the GOP on veterans being hurt by the Trump
administration's mass firings across the government.
Pause
For example, in a government funding fight earlier this year, Democrats secured a vote on an amendment from Duckworth that would have reinstated all veterans fired from the federal government, getting every Republican senator on record voting against the amendment. The Trump administration devoted much of its first 100 days to shrinking the size of the federal government, with Trump empowering billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to take a sledgehammer to government agencies.
Among the administration's 1st efforts was targeting workers who hadn't yet earned employment protections -- probationary employees who were within a year or two of starting work, being promoted or transferring. At the VA, about 2,400 probationary employees were fired in 2 batches in February. Shortly after the probationary firings started, reports emerged that the terminations included employees at the VCL, a key resource for veterans who may be considering suicide. In particular, U.S. Senator Duckworth said she was aware of at least 2 support staff members being fired.
At the time, Collins accused Democrats of spreading
"whoppers" and insisted that no one who answered the
phone was fired -- without directly addressing whether support staff necessary
to keep the hotline running were fired. But in a letter to senators last month
reviewed by Military.com, Collins admitted that 24 VCL support staff were
indeed sent termination notices.
Those firings were later reversed, and all VCL employees
have been reinstated at the same position they previously held, Collins added
in the letter. "Everything I do is in pursuit of ensuring veterans receive
the care and services they deserve and instilling a lasting culture of caring,
customer services and accountability at VA that focuses on always putting
veterans first," Collins wrote in the letter. "Ensuring the VCL is
always accessible 24/7 is one of the department's top priorities."
At a contentious Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing
Tuesday, Duckworth pressed Collins on the issue, saying she was
aware of at least one former supervisor at the VCL who has yet to be
reinstated. Collins agreed with Duckworth that support staff are as important
to running the VCL as phone responders, saying "that's why we brought them
back." Still, he continued to stress that no responders were fired.
"I will not accept the premise, when it was given,
that people were not being answered on the call line when they came,"
Collins said. "That is not true." In addition to putting new
guardrails on firing VCL employees, Duckworth's bill would require the VA to
submit a monthly report to Congress assessing the performance of the hotline,
including the average time callers are on hold and the volume of unanswered
calls.
The VA would also have to submit a report to Congress breaking down -- by job category, probationary status and veterans’ status -- how many VCL employees there were on the day of Trump's inauguration, how many were fired in February and how many employees there are now. The VCL bill is a part of a series of veteran's legislation Duckworth is introducing this week that also includes a measure to strengthen union protections for VA employees.
The VA Employees Fairness Act was introduced in previous years by former U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, but its reintroduction by Duckworth comes as the Trump administration has been trying to weaken federal employee unions. The bill would expand collective bargaining rights for VA medical professionals who right now have some limitations on what they are allowed to negotiate over.
"This administration cannot continue to slash and burn the VA in the dark," Duckworth said in her statement. "As DOGE cuts continue, it's as urgent as ever that Congress empowers VA health care professionals with the same bargaining rights and protections as other federal employees so they can speak out freely against any problems or challenges they're enduring at this critical time for the VA."
Veterans and service members experiencing a mental health emergency can call the Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255, and via chat at VeteransCrisisLin.net.
