"To be seen or cast as this bad person after I served this country...feels really awful."

Over the past month, VA has cut 2,400 positions, and VA Secretary Doug Collins said this week the department plans to slash more than 70,000 jobs. The goal would reduce VA staffing to 2019 levels, three years before the historic PACT Act expanded benefits to more than a million veterans sickened by exposures to toxins.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has repeatedly promised that the quest to shrink the federal government will not harm veterans or their care.

“We’re going to make the department work better for the veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors,” Collins said this week.

But VA employees from across the country said the cuts and a climate of fear are already hurting veterans.