Just before midnight on a weekend in February, Anne–the widow of a veteran in Lincoln County—received a notification from her bank that more than $50,000 had been withdrawn from her account.
Anne isn’t her real name. KLCC agreed to use a pseudonym because she fears retaliation for speaking to the media.
Anne had lost her husband about three months earlier. Now, she thought her identity might have been stolen. She said the incident caused her so much stress she ended up in the emergency room with heart trouble.
“I was so panicked,” she said. “I was like, you’ve got to shut down all my accounts, I didn’t understand.”
The bank told her the U.S. Department of Treasury had emptied her account.
Anne said she didn’t know what to do, so she reached out to Lincoln County Veteran Services Officer – Keith Barnes. He had previously helped her husband get stipends and backpay he was entitled to under the PACT Act, a 2022 law that helped millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances access healthcare.
Veterans Services Officers usually work for a local government or tribe, instead of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The officers help veterans apply for benefits, or navigate the system if they run into complications.
Barnes told KLCC that after Anne told him her benefits had disappeared, he made at least 100 phone calls on her behalf. He also contacted congressional representatives, and reached out to staff at the VA's national office while at a conference in Washington, D.C.
“I had to pull out every business card I had, and sometimes I’d call them, and they were no longer working for the VA because they had taken the buyout,” Barnes said. “That becomes incredibly difficult as well. The relationships of people you know that could work on these things, they’re just not there anymore.”
At around the same time, VA Secretary Doug Collins, announced in a video posted on X that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, had found $2 billion in contracts to cut. He also, at the time, planned to cut around 80,000 jobs.
“You’ve got to see this, I’ve been given this report that said we were taking millions in dollars in contracts to create things like PowerPoint slides and meeting minutes,” Collins said in the video. “Folks, if you don’t know how to run PowerPoint slides, learn. It’s a tutorial on your computer.”
Investigations from multiple news outlets found DOGE’s work at the VA was riddled with errors, and many of the purported savings were reversed. Some workers who were fired were rehired. The VA has since scaled down its planned staffing reductions to 30,000 people through attrition instead of firings.
Members of Congress have also raised concerns about staffing reductions at the VA, including Oregon U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat from Happy Valley.
She and Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu sent a letter to Collins in late September raising concerns about an Inspector General report showing staffing shortages, and the VA’s own self-reported numbers that show thousands of workers have left.
In a press conference, Bynum said she feared the exodus of employees could lead to healthcare delays, issues with veteran benefits and worse mental health outcomes.
"We're demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, answers to how many positions remain unfilled, what steps the department is taking to ensure that vacancies are filled in a timely manner, and with qualified professionals,” Bynum said. “How they are making sure our veterans have access to care in the meantime. We can't just wait and see what happens, we need action, and we need it now."
Oregon’s two senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, raised similar concerns to Oregon Public Broadcasting earlier this year.
KLCC reached out to other Veteran Service Offices in Oregon to ask if they had seen changes in services or availability at the VA. Lane County’s VSO said he had seen more veterans and family members experiencing anxiety about their benefits and access to healthcare, but neither he or Benton County’s veteran service department said they had noticed changes in the level of service from the agency.
KLCC also reached out to the VA directly to ask about staffing levels and benefits processing. In a statement, the VA said their employee vacancy rates are lower than many non-government healthcare systems and argued the agency is getting better results now than it was during the Biden Administration, processing record numbers of benefits applications.
The agency also said the employment numbers that Bynum raised concerns about, which the VA is required to produce, are “not an appropriate indicator of staffing shortages,” and are “subjective, not standardized and unreliable.”
Money returned, but no explanation
Back in Lincoln County, Anne says she still hasn’t received an explanation about what happened to her. She said about three months after her money was taken, it was returned.
“I was relieved, but I’m not healed from all this,” she said. “And I worry that somebody could reach in and try to grab it again.”
More than 11% of Lincoln County’s population are veterans, according to the U.S. Census. Barnes said he's seen more challenging cases recently than he has in past years, and worries any disruptions to the VA could be hard on a community that has so many veterans and family members who rely on it.
He said big changes at the VA could erode trust, especially for veterans who are hesitant, homeless, or vulnerable in other ways.
“The veteran says, 'well the VA doesn’t care about me,'” Barnes said. “So they don’t seek out the benefits they’re due because of their service.”
Lincoln County has a levy on the November ballot that would increase resources for veterans services locally. Barnes says if voters approve the funds, the outreach worker that the county plans to hire should help his team be more proactive.
