U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has joined Senate colleagues in raising alarm about plans by the Trump administration to cut nearly 20% of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ workforce.

In a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins, Peters voiced strong opposition to the Department of Government Efficiency and President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce its workforce to 2019 levels, which could lay off as many as 83,000 employees this year, including at least 20,000 veterans.

Peters also emphasized that these cuts would be particularly disastrous for veterans who rely on the VA to receive the health care and benefits they earned, given that since 2019, through the PACT Act, the VA has implemented the largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in decades.

As Michigan employs nearly 30,000 federal civil service workers, the planned VA cuts could put hundreds of Michigan jobs in jeopardy, Peters said.

Veterans make up nearly 30% of the federal workforce, or approximately 640,000 employees.

Since taking office, Peters said, the Trump Administration has already laid off about 6,000 former service members, including veterans who worked in federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and the Treasury Department.

“We write today regarding a memo issued by your Chief of Staff on March 4, and later proudly announced by you via Twitter, detailing a plan to reduce the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workforce to 2019 levels,” Peters and his colleagues wrote. “Over the past five years, there have been monumental bipartisan expansions and improvements to veterans’ health care and benefits. Your proposal puts all of them at risk. And we believe it is blatantly dishonest to claim veterans’ health care and benefits will not be impacted by the termination of up to 83,000 employees, including 20,000 veterans.”

The senators continued, “We urge you to start putting veterans first — to review VA’s own data, listen to your leadership and frontline staff on the ground serving veterans every day, and talk to veterans and their families. When you do, you will come to the one and only legitimate conclusion — that massive, arbitrary staff cuts will not make the Department more efficient nor improve care and benefits for veterans. In fact, they will have the opposite effect, and they will dishonor the contract the United States made with these veterans when they signed up to risk their lives in service to our nation.”