An Open Letter to All PVA Members
Post Date: February 26, 2025
WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 26, 2025)
Dear PVA Members,
Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) is deeply troubled by actions being taken in Washington, D.C. that are already having a detrimental impact on the services that veterans with spinal cord injuries and diseases (SCI/D) like ALS and MS, rely upon. In recent weeks, you have likely heard many reports of widespread changes in federal government staffing and funding. While we understand and generally support the underlying desire for agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to streamline access to care and benefits, the arbitrary and haphazard way that these efforts are being approached is failing that mission and harming veterans.
Today, the Office of Personal Management and the Office of Management and Budget released joint guidance that is the next and most significant step in the plan to significantly reduce the federal government. While the memo does provide some exceptions (like national security or border security), it is unclear if VA is covered under any of those exempted areas. If VA is not exempted, it will be required to submit a mass reduction-in-force plan per the requirements of the memo.
Earlier efforts to reduce the federal workforce have already had an effect on veterans’ care and benefits. We learned this week that Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) agents have been terminated around the country and others immediately retired as a direct result of the Administration’s efforts. SAH was short staffed prior to these latest reductions, leading us to believe that veterans’ efforts to adapt their homes will suffer.
Members of PVA around the country have reported that recreation therapists are being treated as non-exempt among health care professionals in the VA. Additionally, we have been made aware of recreation therapy activities being completely canceled because funding has been cut. Recreation therapists play a crucial role in teaching veterans with SCI/D how to enjoy life and reengage in the social part of community following a catastrophic disability. No position in the multi-faceted team approach to care for veterans with SCI/D should be treated as expendable. We call on the VA to clarify the status of these positions and provide the funding necessary to conduct recreation therapy activities to ensure that veterans with catastrophic injuries and diseases can continue to receive the care they need.
PVA also has grave concerns about the future of research that helps veterans and all Americans. Research is one of the four principal missions of the VA. It’s also one of the fundamental tenets of our mission going back to our founding nearly 80 years ago. Research focused on veterans, particularly those with catastrophic disabilities like SCI/D, has changed the world for the better. It has improved and even saved the lives of countless veterans and other Americans.
Arbitrary reductions that remove key personnel from the research space discount the role that these individuals play in benefiting not only veterans, but society as a whole. Specifically, we recently learned that some VA researchers working on ALS research have lost funding and that research will stop. It is beyond comprehension that the federal government would not want to invest in research that could improve and even save the lives of veterans with ALS and other life-altering disabilities.
We are equally concerned about proposed rules that would substantially reduce the overhead rates for research advanced and supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Drastically reducing the overhead rate for research projects will have serious consequences for research for veterans across the entire spectrum, including for PVA-supported research.
On March 4 at 10:00 a.m. ET, PVA National President Robert Thomas will testify before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs. He will discuss the crucial importance of restoring VA’s specialized care services, which have been suffering from funding and staffing cuts in recent years. He will also speak to the important role that VA-provided SCI/D care and life-sustaining research has played in shaping his life. We urge you to watch his testimony (veterans.house.gov) and to sign PVA’s petition (pva.org/research-resources/pva-action-force/) opposing any efforts to starve the SCI/D system of care of resources.
We also know that many of you have the best picture of what is happening in your local facilities. Some members of Congress are skeptical that cuts and force reductions across the system are having an impact on health care services and benefits. We encourage you to contact your members of Congress (Senators and Representative) and share with them exactly what you are seeing and how veterans’ care and benefits are being impacted. If they do not hear from you, they will continue to believe that no harm is being done to veterans.
We said following his confirmation that we wanted to work collaboratively with VA Secretary Collins to improve access to care for veterans, particularly those with SCI/D who rely upon the VA SCI/D system of care almost exclusively. Instead we have been forced to the sideline while the Secretary makes only vague proclamations that staffing and other cuts will “be invested back in care and benefits.” It is time for VA leadership to demonstrate exactly what that phrase means because we are tired of broken promises.
Robert L. Thomas, Jr Carl Blake
National President Chief Executive Officer
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About Paralyzed Veterans of America
Paralyzed Veterans of America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and the only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated solely for the benefit and representation of veterans with spinal cord injury or diseases. The organization ensures veterans receive the benefits earned through service to our nation; monitors their care in VA spinal cord injury units; and funds research and education in the search for a cure and improved care for individuals with paralysis.
As a life-long partner and advocate for veterans and all people with disabilities, PVA also develops training and career services, works to ensure accessibility in public buildings and spaces, and provides health and rehabilitation opportunities through sports and recreation. With more than 70 offices and 33 chapters, Paralyzed Veterans of America serves veterans, their families, and their caregivers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Learn more at PVA.org.
