The VA hiring freeze that began on Inauguration Day 2025 formally ended on October 15, 2025, but hiring at the department is not back to normal. A presidential executive order replaced the temporary freeze with permanent controls: no vacant civilian position can be filled and no new position can be created without approval from a Strategic Hiring Committee, and every hire must fit within the agency’s Annual Staffing Plan and personnel caps.1The White House. Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring Roles directly tied to veteran healthcare and benefits stay exempt and are still being filled. Most administrative and support roles are not.
Where VA Hiring Stands Right Now
Inside the VA, every hiring action has to comply with FY 2026 enterprise-wide position baselines and personnel caps. Anything above those levels requires a formal package showing a documented mission requirement, statutory authority, or approved programmatic need, signed off by the chief financial officer and the assistant secretary for human resources, among others.2Department of Veterans Affairs. Updated Department of Veterans Affairs Hiring Guidance The FY 2026 budget projects roughly 455,874 full-time equivalents, down from about 484,000 at the start of 2025.
The department also announced a reorganization of the Veterans Health Administration’s management structure in December 2025, consolidating regional oversight and cutting duplicative management layers. The VA says it is not a reduction in force, does not expect significant changes in overall staff levels once complete, and will take 18 to 24 months to implement.3VA News. VA Launches Veterans Health Administration Reorganization
How We Got From a Freeze to Permanent Controls
A Presidential Memorandum signed January 20, 2025, froze civilian hiring across the executive branch, prohibiting agencies from filling any vacant position that existed at noon that day and from creating new ones.4The White House. Hiring Freeze It was written to last 90 days. It didn’t.
An April 17, 2025, extension kept the freeze in place, and a July 7, 2025, memorandum continued it through October 15, 2025, while spelling out exemptions for veterans’ healthcare and benefits, immigration enforcement, national security, and public safety roles.5The White House. Ensuring Accountability and Prioritizing Public Safety in Federal Hiring The October executive order then made the underlying restriction permanent. So while the freeze technically ended, the VA has been operating under continuous hiring controls since January 20, 2025, with no signal that non-exempt hiring will reopen.
Which VA Jobs Are Still Being Filled
The VA identifies more than 350,000 exempt positions where hiring continues because the work is directly tied to veteran healthcare or benefits.6VA News. VA to Reduce Staff by Nearly 30K by End of FY2025 The July 2025 presidential memorandum explicitly listed “the provision of Social Security, Medicare, or veterans’ healthcare or benefits” among the categories that do not require OPM review.5The White House. Ensuring Accountability and Prioritizing Public Safety in Federal Hiring
Exempt VA roles include:
- Mental health providers, including psychologists, social workers, licensed professional mental health counselors, and suicide prevention staff
- Registered nurses, nursing assistants, and related clinical support
- Physical therapists, orthotists, prosthetists, and prosthetic representatives
- Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
- Health science specialists staffing the Veterans Crisis Line
- Benefits processing roles supporting disability claims and other veterans’ benefits
Exempt does not mean automatic. Hiring officials for exempt positions must still certify that each recruitment action fits within the VA’s FY 2026 personnel caps and modernization goals.2Department of Veterans Affairs. Updated Department of Veterans Affairs Hiring Guidance
If You’re Applying to the VA Now
For jobs in the exempt categories, particularly clinical healthcare roles, postings continue and offers are being made. Expect the process to move, though possibly slower than it did before 2025. For non-exempt administrative and support roles, very few positions are being filled, and any new one has to clear the Strategic Hiring Committee and the personnel cap review before an offer can go out.
If you were in the pipeline when the original freeze hit, the cutoff was strict. Only candidates who had accepted a job offer before noon on January 20, 2025, with a start date on or before February 8, 2025, were allowed to onboard.7Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget. Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze Guidance Everyone else with a signed offer had it revoked, with no appeal, because they were not yet federal employees and the action was not treated as an adverse personnel decision.
If You Already Work at the VA
The controls sound worse than they are for current employees. The VA’s December 2025 hiring guidance states that internal career-ladder promotions, extensions of term or temporary appointments, temporary promotions, reassignments, and details are not subject to the freeze-era policies.2Department of Veterans Affairs. Updated Department of Veterans Affairs Hiring Guidance If you’re already in the system, moving up or laterally within the VA is not blocked.
The real shift for existing staff is the shrinking headcount. The VA had roughly 484,000 employees at the start of January 2025 and lost about 30,000 by the end of FY 2025 through normal attrition, voluntary early retirements, the deferred resignation program, and the hiring freeze combined. The department says this approach eliminated the need for a large-scale reduction in force, and the Secretary has stated there will be no layoffs tied to the VHA reorganization. Mission-critical positions were also carved out of the Deferred Resignation Program and the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, so employees in those roles were not offered or pushed into early departure incentives.6VA News. VA to Reduce Staff by Nearly 30K by End of FY2025
What Happens If the VA Does a Reduction in Force
The VA has avoided a formal RIF so far. If one comes, 5 C.F.R. Part 351 governs how employees are ranked for retention: tenure of employment, veteran preference, length of service, and performance ratings, in that order.8eCFR. 5 CFR Part 351 – Reduction in Force Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more receive the highest retention priority, followed by other preference-eligible veterans, then non-preference employees.
The VA must give affected employees at least 60 calendar days’ written notice before a RIF action takes effect. That notice has to include the employee’s competitive area, retention standing, performance ratings for the last four years, and the right to appeal.9U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Reduction in Force Employees separated, demoted, or furloughed for more than 30 days through a RIF can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board within 30 days of the effective date or receipt of the agency’s decision, whichever is later.10U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Information Sheet – Reductions in Force A separate claim is available under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act if you believe your separation violated veterans’ preference rules.
Separated competitive-service employees go on a Reemployment Priority List that gives them hiring priority for most competitive-service vacancies before the VA can hire outsiders. Excepted-service employees who are preference-eligible go on an equivalent Priority Reemployment List.9U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Reduction in Force
What This Means for Veterans Waiting on Care and Claims
The exemption of more than 350,000 healthcare positions was meant to keep veteran care off the chopping block. In practice, the loss of administrative support staff, schedulers, and benefits processors has bled into service delivery.
The Veterans Benefits Administration is the clearest example. As of mid-March 2026, VBA reported a total inventory of 574,419 pending disability compensation and pension claims, with 90,712 classified as backlogged after more than 125 days pending.11Veterans Benefits Administration Reports. Detailed Claims Data VBA completed a record 2.5 million claims in 2024 with a fully staffed workforce.12Veterans Benefits Administration Reports. Claims Backlog Holding that pace with thousands fewer employees is the pressure point going into 2026.
Mental health access is under similar strain. Senate investigators and facility-level data indicate growing wait times for new mental health patients, with some facilities exceeding the 20-day threshold that triggers eligibility for community care. The VA has disputed some findings, citing different measurement periods, but the underlying tension between smaller staff and steady demand is not disputed.
The FY 2026 Outlook
The FY 2026 budget projects 455,874 full-time equivalents, roughly 2,964 fewer than the FY 2025 enacted level.13U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. FY 2026 Budget Submission – Budget in Brief The department has committed to a record reduction in the disability compensation claims backlog by the end of December 2025 and to an automation plan for the disability claims process by July 4, 2026. Whether the VA hits those marks with a smaller workforce is the open question. The March 2026 backlog numbers suggest the margin is thin.