Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency abandoned some of its plans to slash contract spending for veterans’ health care services after a revolt by frontline Veterans Health Administration employees who contended many of the cuts would imperil safety at the agency’s almost 1,400 hospitals and clinics.
According to a report filed by Gretchen Morgenson and Laura Strickler for NBC News, what had been a list of 875 VA contracts scheduled for termination a little over a week ago has now become 585 cancelled contracts, the VA said.
The about-face, said the report, is a rare public retreat by the socalled efficiency operation known as DOGE, which has come under fire for moving to axe crucial Government services and overstating the value of some of its savings to taxpayers.
In its announcement reducing the number of contracts to be cancelled, the VA said that the terminations “will not negatively affect Veteran care, benefits or services” and that they “were identified through a deliberative, multi-level review.” The agency acknowledged that some of the cancelled contracts had already been fully paid for.
The list of contracts still on the chopping block has not been made public, and the VA declined to provide it. But VA employees have identified 200 of the remaining scheduled cancellations to NBC News, and some of them appear to be central to patient safety, those employees say.
For example, it said, the revised list of killed contracts includes those covering sterility certification for VA hospital pharmacy operations, facility air quality and safety testing to prevent transmission of infections.
