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Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak out against the harmful actions taken by the Trump administration and Elon Musk.

What they are doing isn't about government efficiency. They are mass firing the men and women who help provide vital services that countless Nevadans rely on, from Medicaid to food assistance.

This is being felt in nearly every corner of our country. It is impacting our veterans who rely on the VA, our seniors who rely on Social Security and Medicare, our families who rely on Medicaid and CHIP for their children's healthcare, and so many others.

The actions taken by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, are tearing at the fabric of American society. This is no way to run a country, and the people in my State are being hurt in the process.

So, today, I want to focus on a specific aspect of the Trump firings: how it is impacting veterans, not just veterans across the country but particularly those veterans in Nevada.

Just yesterday, it was reported that Elon Musk and his DOGE tech bros are planning to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs--80,000. This is in addition to the 1,000 VA employees they have already laid off, which included people who staffed the Veterans Crisis Hotline.

So maybe Mr. Musk and his team--his team of, as I said, teenybopper tech bros--they don't understand the magnitude of their actions. So let me explain to them what the VA does, what the VA means.

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides critical healthcare to the men and women who were willing to sacrifice their very lives for our Nation and for their families. It provides them with the benefits that they have earned and that they, frankly, deserve. It is quite literally the least that we can, as a nation, do for our veterans.

Firing those employees who work at the VA will hurt our veterans, plain and simple. It will hurt veterans not only because they rely on the VA staff but because many of those who work at the VA are themselves veterans. The VA is the largest employer of veterans in this Nation.

I have heard from so many Nevadans who are feeling the direct impact of these layoffs, and, today, I want to share a couple of stories with you.

Mark Wagstaff, a Marine Corps veteran--a proud Marine Corps veteran-- currently lives in Las Vegas. He served our country honorably for 10 years. Even after his service in our military, Mark wanted to still help others, and he transitioned into civilian public service. That is why he recently started working as a lead supply technician at the VA in Las Vegas.

He was proud of his work. He was dedicated to his mission, ensuring that all medical supplies were delivered to the veterans clinics throughout Southern Nevada.

And, Mark, so proud of his job, so happy to be there, did such a great job that he was promoted. When a position in administrative services in North Las Vegas opened up recently, he applied, and he got the job. He was so happy. He was doing meaningful work as a veteran for the veterans. It meant everything to him.

Sadly, this all changed after Donald Trump and Elon Musk started messing with the VA. On February 14, the Valentine's Day present that Mark received from Elon Musk and President Trump was an email informing him that he no longer had a job. Despite receiving an ``outstanding'' performance review, despite his recent promotion, Mark was being told he was let go due to ``poor performance.''

By firing him in that way, they also immediately locked him out of all of his work accounts. That means he can't access his termination paperwork. It means he might not even receive his last paycheck.

I want everybody to think about that. Here is a veteran who put his life on the line, proudly served our Nation, was willing to risk everything for all of us, and was fired in the most despicable of ways.

This is beyond shameful. Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who actually don't know a damn thing about service to our Nation, should be ashamed--should be ashamed--on Valentine's Day, no less.

But Mark is not the only one.

Lili Stevenson, a devoted wife of a disabled veteran, who lives in Las Vegas, was also impacted by these unjust layoffs at the VA. She worked at the Henderson Vet Center and recently received feedback in a performance review that indicated she was doing an outstanding job.

For her, this job was more than just a paycheck. She could be working anywhere else and making more money, but she felt a calling to serve her veteran community--our veteran community--a calling that, like Mark, she had answered with passion and commitment.

Despite this, again, on Valentine's Day, she received a termination notice, just like Mark. This firing also falsely claims ``poor performance,'' which does not line up with the facts as Lili knows them.

Lili and her husband--her veteran husband--rely on her income from her job at the VA as their source of income. But now, without a paycheck, she worries about her ability to continue to pay her bills and make ends meet.

Many veterans already face significant challenges in accessing the care and the services that they need. Long wait times for medical appointments, overwhelmed but dedicated staff, and a system already stretched thin have created barriers that delay essential care. But these layoffs--the Trump layoffs--will only worsen an already difficult situation.

The loss of dedicated staff like Mark and Lili and so many others harms the ability of the VA to serve our veterans in a timely, effective, and, I would say, caring and compassionate manner. With these positions being eliminated, there will be fewer hands to process claims, handle scheduling, and make sure that our veterans are getting the care and attention that they deserve. This is going to lead to even longer wait times for veterans and further delays in access to care, resulting in potentially worse health outcomes for our veterans.

It is simply unconscionable that, after years of sacrifice and service, our veterans will suffer due to cuts being made by people like Elon Musk who were never elected by the American people.

So I urge this administration to take immediate action to halt and reverse these unnecessary and, frankly, unjust layoffs.

We must always stand up for our veterans. We must always stand up for the workers who serve them.

God bless our veterans. God bless our troops.

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