Veterans affairs at risk as Trump administration slashes federal budgets

Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers are sounding the alarm over what they describe as arbitrary personnel decisions and budget uncertainty that could derail decades of groundbreaking medical research.

Dr Stephan Fihn, who spent 36 years with the VA as both physician and researcher, said discoveries such as the nicotine patch, the first liver transplant, and CT scans were all supported by VA research.

"A big one was the management of prostate enlargement" he informed the media "Instead of sending a patient to a surgeon, I could prescribe a pill.”

The research arm of the VA, which Congress allocated nearly $1 billion to last year, is now facing disruption. A hiring freeze and deferred resignation offers have already caused critical staff losses, including data analysts, researchers said.

Dr Fihn, writing in "JAMA Internal Medicine" with several colleagues, warned that the uncertainty “threatens the future of a $2 billion research enterprise that extends back more than 80 years.”

Following public criticism, VA officials extended for 90 days the contracts of employees whose terms were due to expire.

However, the freeze still looms over long-term projects, such as the Million Veteran Program, one of the largest genetic study efforts in the world.

VA spokesman Pete Kasperowicz said the department was undertaking a “comprehensive assessment” to ensure future research aligns with the goal of improving veteran healthcare.

Former VA chief of research Dr Timothy O’Leary stressed that the agency’s work is vital not only for what it discovers, but what it disproves. “The private sector rarely funds studies that might prove a new drug is no better than an old one,” he said.