Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

20. Department of Veterans Affairs · Minor

Reform VBA human capital management to use more contractors on claims

Not started

650 20. Department of Veterans Affairs

“Pursue reforms of the Human Capital Management process and operations within the VBA to build a more blended workforce with more contractors to process claims. This would free federal employees to perform other duties and be involved solely with the final decision to award benefits.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No reform of VBA's human capital management process was announced, and no contractor is processing claims. VBA's federal claims workforce shrank rather than being reshaped: the FY2027 request cuts 555 Disability Compensation FTE, lowering personnel costs by $244.5 million, as part of a department-wide reduction of nearly 30,000 employees achieved through the hiring freeze, deferred resignations, voluntary early retirement and attrition. Where contractors do more, it is in the two places they already worked before the window — contract medical examinations (#1788) and private-medical-record retrieval through release-of-information vendors — and the rating decision, development and award work stays with federal employees, who under VA's own account are about half veterans. The government-wide Core HCM consolidation VA is buying into (#1800) is a systems replacement, not a claims-workforce reform. See the Chapter 20 cluster negative search for the queries.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Congress is moving in the opposite direction on VA human capital management. S. 4400, the Optimizing the VA Workforce for Veterans Act of 2026, would require a VA strategic human capital plan, reduction-in-force notice, and detailed plans and justifications for reorganizations; the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held hearings on 2026-04-29 and it has gone no further, so under §3b it sits at the introduced/hearings rung and does not move this ask either way.
  • The Federal Register phrase search for “human capital management” across VA documents since 2025-01-20 returns three hits, none about VBA staffing: two collective-bargaining exclusion notices and the Uniform Guidance conformity proposed rule.
Action
other
Object
VBA Human Capital Management process and claims workforce
ID
1794