Trump at Odds With His VA Nominee on Hiring Freeze

As a nurse at the VA I do hope that an exemption for hiring within the VA is made. The single biggest delay in care throughout the VA is due to lack of personnel to make these appointments with. If you can't replace those that leave in a timely manner this problem only gets bigger. Within the VA, from the time a person applies until the time they start the job is usually several months. People who apply in many cases cannot afford to wait that long so they take a different job, this slows down the process of filling positions. Once someone is selected to fill the position, they have to fill out and wait for the results of a federal background investigation (even if they already have a Secret Clearance) which I did have when I was hired and still have. The Federal Background investigation will take at least a month and could take 2-3 months. Only after this process can someone start the job. Even when someone has filed for retirement the position cannot be listed until they are effectively retired, so what this means is that when someone leaves working at the VA, they won't be replaced for at least 3 months, in some cases 6 months or more. If this process cannot even begin until a hiring freeze is lifted, fewer appointments will be available as there will be fewer people to schedule the appointments and to schedule them with.

trump is doing the hiring freeze so they can sort through the mess of the abc departments and I think the VA needs to be one of them. You cant keep adding horrid employees and expect it to get better.

there may be some Modifications in the hiring freeze ... but the VA needs to Clean House first...