The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has reversed its termination of several contracts with a veteran-owned business based in Kentucky, according to its owner.
The terminated contracts were among the nearly 900 service contracts the VA abruptly canceled two weeks ago, including ones to help cover medical services, fund cancer programs, recruit doctors and provide burial services to veterans.
VA Secretary Doug Collins posted a video on social media that week claiming to have cut $2 billion in contracts that he viewed as wasteful spending that did not help veterans.
Five of those contracts belonged to Riley McGuire Partners, a federally-registered veteran-owned small business in Jeffersontown. Its contracts provide oversight for VA programs that lease out underutilized properties that can be used to service veterans, including the managing of safety and hazard inspections for more than 50 properties that house thousands of veterans across the country, including in Lexington.
Kentucky Public Radio reported on the company’s contract terminations two weeks ago, with owner Neil Riley criticizing Collins’ remarks as inaccurate and saying the cuts would hurt veterans’ safety and services.
A VA spokesperson countered the federal agency “will now be performing these functions in house” and the cancellation of Riley McGuire contracts would save the agency nearly $2.3 million. The AP reported this week that the VA plans to layoff 80,000 employees.
The widespread VA contract terminations and layoffs received heavy criticism, including from Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who read from the KPR story in a Senate committee meeting last week.
“These contracts help ensure the safety of low-income housing for veterans who are homeless or transitioning from care,” Blumenthal said. “It isn't waste at all. It's not hypothetical, it isn't abstract. It's one of many human examples of impacts of this administration's actions.”
Later that day, Riley says the VA began informing the company that some of its contracts would be “unterminated,” with three of their five contracts restored by the end of the week — preventing the layoffs he feared for his employees.
“I am relieved that we have been able to retain all our employees here in Kentucky,” Riley said. “Personally, I am also happy to be back working with the VA in support of their mission and serving our nation’s Veterans.”
The VA has since walked back the number of contracts it first said it was eliminating due to being wasteful, now saying it will cancel 585 of them.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
