Putting Veterans First Act of 2025
The Putting Veterans First Act of 2025 is a comprehensive bill aiming to place veterans, military spouses, caregivers, survivors, and reserve-component members at the center of federal employment policies, particularly within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and related civil-service protections. It largely creates retroactive and ongoing protections for military-connected federal employees, expands reporting and accountability requirements, restricts certain VA operational changes (such as hiring freezes, office closures, telework, and final job offers), strengthens mental health support, and broadens employment assistance and oversight. It also imposes new information-security and ethics provisions across the VA and federal workforce, and sets up mechanisms to restore or protect essential VA programs and services that may have been altered or removed in recent years. In short, the act seeks to (1) reinstate and compensate federal employees who are veterans or connected to the military who faced adverse actions since January 20, 2025; (2) constrain and require justification for major VA workforce and operational actions; (3) reinforce civil-service protections and mental-health support for veterans and related employees; (4) bolster accountability through reporting, ethics, and independent oversight; and (5) improve employment opportunities and collaboration between federal agencies, the private sector, and veteran-focused programs.
Key Points
- 1Retroactive reinstatement protections for military-connected federal employees: removals, demotions, or suspensions of veterans, military spouses, caregivers, survivors, or reserve-component members occurring from January 20, 2025 until enactment are void, with back pay and restoration of benefits, plus an option to resign with continued back pay and benefits.
- 2Protections for military-connected federal employees in civil service: limits on mass removals, requires advance notice, ties removals to performance thresholds, and mandates supervisor approval in certain cases; creates a rapid referral process to MSPB or OSC after removals.
- 3Strong safeguards for VA workforce and services: prohibits VA hiring freezes or office closures without statutory authority, requires 1-year notice for office realignments, and mandates protections for telework and final job offers with remedies for violations.
- 4Expanded reporting and accountability: annual and periodic reporting on veteran and military-family hires, separations, and workforce changes; quarterly and annual VA personnel data reporting with public, disaggregated access; mandatory Comptroller General reviews of military-community employment in the federal government; and reporting on the effects of policy changes on VA programs and services.
- 5Oversight and ethics enhancements: prohibits VA Secretaries from also leading other federal agencies; strengthens the roles and independence of the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics; accelerates merit-system protections and provides firmer firewall and conflict-of-interest safeguards.
- 6Mental health and employment support: reimbursement for mental health services for employees removed or suspended; mobile Vet Center deployments to agencies under certain conditions; protections to maintain mental-health-related services and programs through 2030; and expanded employment opportunities and portability for veterans and military-connected employees.
- 7Employment options and partnerships: a national push for employment assistance, coordinating with OPM and the Department of Labor to expand veteran-focused hiring programs, private-sector partnerships, and potential inclusion of veteran-preference elements in contracts.
- 8Information security and data access: creates new limitations on access to VA information systems and data, requiring appropriate clearance, trainings, ethics agreements, and strict governance to prevent improper use or access.
- 9Restoring and protecting VA programs: provisions to assess, publish, and, if needed, restore essential VA programs, offices, and services that were removed or altered since early 2025, with timelines for publication and justification.