At Pittsburg’s ancient warrior Affairs Hospital, the researchers spent months preparing for a clinical experience for a new drug to treat advanced cancer from the mouth, throat and sound box.
They were ready last month to start recording patients – ancient warriors whose cancer spread to other tissues and who ran out of treatment options.
Then a problem arose.
The hospital was unable to renew the job of one of the main employees participating in the study administration, a routine process that was usually thwarted by freezing an employment imposed as part of a government cutting project led by President Trump and Elon Musk. Suddenly, the clinical experience was hanging.
“They were ready to register,” said Alanna Caffas, CEO of the Old Warriors Foundation, who runs trial. They had laboratory groups on the site. They had drugs to dispense. But they were unable to renew the clinical research coordinator. “
While Trump administration officials promised to maintain the basic services of patients, the preliminary discounts in the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs have generated chaotic ripple effects. They have disrupted studies that included patients waiting for experimental treatments, and forced some facilities to shoot support employees and create uncertainty amid the cancellation of the mass and the return of the partial, for hundreds of decades targeted by the government efficiency management of Mr. Musk.
The changes have rocked the administration of the veterans, which stand out in the maze of agencies and offices under the siege by Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk.
It is in many ways a natural target for reform – a bureaucratic giant that includes about 480,000 employees, about 90,000 contracts and a documented date of scandals and waste. But it also treats 9.1 million inventors of warriors, provides critical medical research, and according to some studies, it provides similar care for many private health systems or better than many private health systems. Even the 2025 project, the conservative ruling plan collected by Trump’s allies said that the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs turned into “one of the most respectable American agencies.”
The Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs is also one of the most political sensitive sections in the government, as it serves a severe electoral circle by Republicans, including Mr. Trump, who has made the agency’s reform a discussion point since his 2016 campaign.
Now, with the Minister of the Ministry of Affairs of the Old Warriors Doug Collins, a contractor a A deeper round of discounts – Eliminate about 80,000 jobs and review tens of thousands of contracts – Some Republican legislators warn that the troubled process risks the retreat from the last progress.
The lawmakers interrogated the Republican Party, Mr. Musk Closed meeting last weekWith Senator John Paraso of Wyoming, Republican No. 2, the correspondents then told that although improvements can be made, “we want to make sure that the veterans have ancient times the care they need.”
This account is based on the first days of Doug’s discounts within the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs on more than twenty interviews with hospital officials, current staff and recently respected employees, and heads of independent institutions that support the health system of old warriors, government contractors and research scientists. Many have agreed to speak on the condition that his identity is not disclosed because they want to continue serving the veterans or hope to return them in their jobs, and they are afraid to take revenge on the Trump administration.
Of the 2,400 employees launched from the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs since the inauguration of Mr. Trump are the workers who buy medical supplies, schedule dates and arrange horseback riding to see their doctors. Many of the veterans themselves. All of them were “Test” employeesThis means that they were relatively new in the job and had less legal protection. Some may be repeated, pending court procedures.
James Steanel, an old army warrior who has stored supplies to sponsor the emergency and sponsoring lines at a hospital in the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs in Milwoki.
“If the work is doubled, I can guarantee that you will get wrong things and wrong things in the wrong place,” said Mr. Steanel, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, who described his role in employment papers as “critical”.
The officials of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs said that the system is completely committed to serving its patients, and insisting that no patients are affected by wounds and that all savings will be re -invested in the veterans.
“The Ministry of Affairs will always provide ancient warriors, families, care and survivors of health care and the benefits they obtained,” the agency’s press secretary, Peter Kasperovich, said in a statement. “But we are also making significant improvements to the management of management, including the re -guidance of billions of dollars from the necessary efforts to choose health care, benefits and services that directly support beneficiaries.”
A day after the New York Times asked about the delay in clinical trials due to the freezing of employment, the ancient warriors agency moved to address the problem facing research staff such as those in Pittsburg, which is often paid by external groups that manage the research but they still need limited time for time and unpaid in the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs on the site.
On Friday afternoon, the Acting Chief of Research and Development at the Ministry of Affairs of the Old Warriors Affairs has sent the employees who say that those who have certain dates are scheduled to be expired will be given soon for 90 days. E -mail of employees has not determined what will happen after 90 days, although most studies last for years, or how the decision applies to those who have already expired. Mr. Kasperowicz said the extension will allow “a comprehensive evaluation of continuous research initiatives to assess its impact on veteran health care.”
Mr. Collins seemed to bring some of his concerns about the agency’s future to the cabinet meeting last week, and Mr. Musk asks to be a strategy in the government evaluation process, the Times I mentioned earlier.
In public places, Mr. Collins expressed his enthusiastic support for this effort. It also gave about 300,000 workers the “critical task” of the pieces, including medical professionals such as doctors and nurses.
“But we will make big changes,” He said. “So you are used to that.”
Research disorders
Although the Old Warriors Affairs Department is known for its health care, the conduct of scientific research is one of the agency’s basic tasks, as it provides old warriors early access to advanced treatments that are still in clinical trials.
With the presence of 170 hospitals across the country – and patients who tend to volunteer studies at higher rates of civilians – the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs is often seeking to register large numbers of patients in multiple locations throughout the country.
Some agency’s research focuses on the conditions that affect old warriors, such as painful brain injuries, spinal cord and explosion. But VA is also attributed to prominent discoveries such as aspirin’s ability to prevent heart attacks, the first heartbeat and nicotine correction.
Mr. Trump on January 20 Executive order Rashi Romanov, CEO of the National Assembly of Old Warrior Research Institutions, an association that supports partnerships between the Ministry of Old Warriors and non -profit organizations, a association that supports partnerships between the Ministry of Old Warriors and non -profit organizations, said that the employment of the freezing government from government employment cut many critical research employees in the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs in the middle of the studies through Studies.
If their dates are not renewed, “any work should be suspended with VA; they cannot have a connection with patients. Ms. Romanov said:” They have no access to data. “
Mrs. Romanov estimated that about 200 research staff participating in 300 or more experiences are at risk of interruption during the first 90 days after freezing federal employment, threatening to disable trials to provide treatment for about 10,000 of the old warriors if no action is taken. She said that scientists are already considering moving experiences on other institutions, which means that the veterans are no longer in the participation line, and may cause millions of dollars in research funds.
In Pittsburg, at least 20 research employees participating in more than ten studies a specific type of appointment come without compensation from VA, and broken projects included three new drugs for cancer and other cancer.
Mr. Kasperowicz said that the 90 -day extensions include the jobs of the research employees in an attempt to maintain the “continuity of all research efforts” while the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs evaluates the value of the research. He said that the administration will communicate with the Pittsburgh Medical Center “to ensure the understanding of this policy.”
Struggle for contracts
The Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs has long struggled to maintain the supervision of its spending, including an extensive network of contracts worth about $ 67 billion annually, according to the agency. A report issued by the Acting Inspector Office of the Agency indicated “inappropriate and unknown payments” 3.2 billion dollars In the fiscal year 2023.
In an initial payment in late February, the Ministry of Affairs of the Veterans of Affairs attempted to cancel nearly 875 contracts. The discounts list was “presented” by Dog, according to the email messages reviewed by the Times, with the fact that “the termination should start as soon as possible.”
“No more consultants who pay to do things like creating Power Point slices and writing the minutes of the meeting!” Mr. Collins books In a post on social media, he announced discounts.
But senior officials in the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs were preparing feverish calls for some of them to decline.
In an email, one of the officials wrote that the contracts in the termination list included more than 100 which “considered a mission”, adding that their cancellation “would lead to a failure of the catastrophic mission of the basic veteran programs or health care.” The most prominent email is services such as sterilization of medical equipment, maintaining boilers and generators, filling medical prescriptions and overseeing human clinical experiences, Some of them were highlighted by the Washington Post.
Within a few minutes, Dr. Stephen Lieberman, the Minister of Health, confirmed the message. “Please reconsider the decision to be made.”
Early the next morning, the Ministry of Affairs of the Old Warriors tried to pump the brakes.
Another official wrote: “Everyone – please stop any end of the contract under progress.”
But many contractors have already been notified that they were losing their work, as emails appear. By next week, the Ministry of Affairs of the Veterans managed to walk some of the ends, saying it would work Eliminate 585 original contracts.
One of them was a contract for the governorate of photography machines at the Middle West Hospital, which would have had to stop all surveying operations as soon as the machines came due to the inspection.
The hospital successfully fought to return this contract. A hospital official said the matter is still pressuring the cancellation of other service contracts, such as technicians who ask for medical supplies.
Mr. Kasperowicz, a spokesman for the Ministry of Old Warriors Affairs, said that the contracts that were canceled “were determined by a multi -level trading review” that includes senior leaders and contracting officials.
Until now, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs has refused to return some contracts because the work does not involve direct interaction with the patients or their families, and the joint email messages with the Times.
But one of the hospital officials said that many positions are crucial even if it does not require direct care of patients – such as those who buy medical supplies.
“Many people do not understand how important these roles are,” the official said. “They are accountable. They are trained and accredited. We cannot replace them with random hospital staff.”
The shootings last month from 2,400 surveillance workers consider them unnecessary to complicate life in some facilities that are now forced to work without supporting support employees.
One of these workers, Shanti Denkan, who spent three months as a office manager at the Mental Health Center for the Old Warriors in Indianapolis. Sometimes, Mrs. Denkan found herself picking up the phone and talking to ancient warriors in a crisis, including one recently suffering from severe hallucinations.
“I kept this phone for more than an hour until a processor was available for him,” said Ms. Dunkan, who said that she was speaking as a member of her union, the American Federation of Government Employees.
But on Valentine’s Day, amid cleansing of thousands of workers throughout the government, she was shot, and no one left only the healers to sit in the reception and checking office, Ms. Denkan said.
The reference published on the door is required to call their advisor and leave an audio email if the office is locked.
Jeremy Singer and Katie Edmondson The reports contributed.
