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Trump hiring freeze includes the short-staffed VA

A federal hiring freeze imposed by President Trump on Monday affects thousands of open jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, despite the half-million veterans still waiting longer than a month for VA appointments.

<p><span style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">A sign marks the entrance to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital on May 30, 2014 in Hines, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)</span></p>

A federal hiring freeze imposed by President Trump on Monday affects thousands of open jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, despite the half-million veterans still waiting longer than a month for VA appointments.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer confirmed Tuesday that the VA is covered under the freeze, which exempted the military and other positions deemed necessary for national security and public safety.

He said the administration wanted to make sure Trump’s pick to lead the VA, current Undersecretary for Health at the agency David Shulkin, is confirmed.

“Right now, the system’s broken,” Spicer said, adding that the freeze is meant only to “pause” hiring until further analysis can be done and a plan put in place to fix things.

“Hiring more people isn’t the answer,” he said. “It’s hiring the right people.”

The order Trump signed does not cover hires already in the works before Monday.

But the VA is currently advertising to fill more than 2,000 job openings on the federal hiring website, including for hundreds of nurses and doctors. Shulkin has told USA TODAY that one of his top priorities is getting fully staffed up.

USA TODAY has also reported on the massive bureaucracy between top-line leaders like Shulkin and front-line care providers that has slowed some improvements in the VA since the scandal broke in 2014 with revelations that schedulers in Phoenix had kept secret wait lists masking how long veterans had been waiting for appointments and at least 40 died while waiting.

The VA is one of the largest agencies in the federal government with more than 350,000 employees. The agency provides veterans with death, disability and education benefits, as well as health care at more 1,200 medical facilities that serve nearly 9 million veterans each year.

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