{"id":7439,"date":"2025-10-30T14:23:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7439"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:23:21","slug":"veterans-go-without-critical-va-services-37000-va-employees-missing-pay-due-to-democrats-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7439","title":{"rendered":"Veterans go without critical VA services, 37,000 VA employees missing pay due to Democrats\u2019 government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-10-30T14:23:21+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON <\/strong>\u2014 The Democrats\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/democrats-republicans-shutdown-negotiations-votes-health-care-29b11579bfc694a52b9e8e272a47bb91\" rel=\"noopener\">decision to shut down the federal government<\/a>\u00a0has forced nearly 37,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees to be furloughed or continue working without pay.<\/p>\n<p>Because VA receives some advance appropriations from Congress, the department\u2019s medical centers, outpatient clinics and Vet Centers remain open and are operating normally during the shutdown. Additionally, VA benefits will continue to be processed and delivered, including compensation, pension, education, and housing benefits. Burials will also continue at VA national cemeteries.<\/p>\n<p>Some important VA services, however, have been stopped because of the Democrats\u2019 government shutdown. For example:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>More than 900,000 Veterans are unable to get assistance from the GI Bill Hotline, which has been shut down.<\/li>\n<li>More than 100,000 enrolled Veterans cannot get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefits.va.gov\/vocrehab\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Veteran Readiness and Employment program<\/a>\u00a0counseling or case management services, as those employees have been furloughed.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The backlog of new applicants for the VR&amp;E program is 61,988 and growing by the day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>56 VA regional benefits offices are closed to the public.<\/li>\n<li>VA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefits.va.gov\/manila\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Manila regional office<\/a>\u00a0is closed, as its legal authority to operate expired Sept. 30.<\/li>\n<li>More than 16,000 service members who are preparing to leave the military cannot receive VA transition briefings, as the contract that provides for this service is not operational during the lapse in appropriations. During this time, transitioning service members will continue to have online access to the full content of the TAP briefing.<\/li>\n<li>157 VA national cemeteries across the country are no longer performing grounds maintenance or placing permanent headstones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 government shutdown is limiting services for Veterans and making life miserable for VA employees, and things are only going to get worse as time goes on,\u201d said <strong>VA Secretary Doug Collins<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s time for Democrats to stop using the suffering of Americans as political <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapidResponse47\/status\/1981028917789028814\">leverage<\/a>\u00a0to give free health care to illegal immigrants. I call on them to open the government and enable VA to provide the complete and comprehensive services America\u2019s Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors have earned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how the Democrats\u2019 government shutdown\u00a0is impacting VA, see <a href=\"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/contingency-planning\/\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/veterans-go-without-critical-va-services-37000-va-employees-missing-pay-due-to-democrats-government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many important VA services have been stopped because of the Democrats&#8217; government shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Veterans go without critical VA services, 37,000 VA employees missing pay due to Democrats\u2019 government shutdown - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many important VA services have been stopped because of the Democrats&#039; government shutdown.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7439\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Veterans go without critical VA services, 37,000 VA employees missing pay due to Democrats\u2019 government shutdown - 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