The Washington Department of Veterans Affairs told the Joint Committee on Veterans' & Military Affairs on Thursday that a set of budget reductions will force program cuts and staffing freezes even as the agency secured capital funding for replacement homes and a second state veterans cemetery.

"This has also given us an opportunity to work with our partners, both federal, state, and nonprofits to find out where areas that we can partner and integrate some of our work based on some of these cuts that we're gonna be impacted by," Director David Puente said, describing how WDVA planned to reallocate limited resources after the governor asked agencies for at least a 6% reduction.

Puente said the agency identified about $3,200,000 in reductions for the 2025-27 biennium. Major operational impacts include a 50% reduction in a veteran internship program (the VCC internships), holding 17 positions vacant (including a social worker at a veteran home and a maintenance mechanic at a cemetery), reductions in contracts with five veteran service organizations that help file VA claims, and cuts affecting suicide-prevention peer specialists and an IT position supporting veteran homes.

The agency will also cut outreach and in-person rural engagement and said it will stop the in-house nursing assistant (NAC) certification academy it had run for veterans out of Orting and Port Orchard; that program graduated its final cohort the week of the briefing. Puente said the NAC academy trained about 41 certified NACs since 2023. He also said the agency's veteran farm at Orting is sunsetting after a federal rural grant expired; the farm helped 26 veteran farmers, distributed about 13,000 pounds of produce to local partners and supported composting and community partnerships.

WDVA said VetCorps (the state-run AmeriCorps veteran service program) lost federal AmeriCorps funding and several VetCorps members were affected; the agency has requested $1.2 million in a grant to restore sites but said the federal funding ending forced the program to scale back.

Puente described some reductions to counseling and wellness programs: a current-year reduction that the agency must absorb and programmatic reductions next fiscal year that will reduce free counseling capacity. He said the agency would reduce the veterans innovations emergency financial assistance program by $100,000 and reduce counseling and wellness by $100,000.

Among the agency's capital and programmatic successes: the legislature funded about $23.7 million in capital projects the agency requested, including funds for a replacement Spokane veteran home and steps toward a second state veterans cemetery in southwest Washington. The legislature also provided $8 million to purchase land near the Spokane VA Medical Center, Puente said, and the Port Orchard home HVAC replacement project is expected to be completed in July.

Puente told the committee that the agency will seek partnerships with counties and community organizations to stretch resources for veteran housing and services, and that he would continue to press federal partners to preserve grant programs for transitional housing and suicide prevention. Committee members asked for continued monitoring of impacts to suicide-prevention services and outreach.

No formal vote or policy decision was taken during the briefing; members expressed concern about reductions that affect counseling, outreach and employment-transition supports for veterans and military families.