Earlier this month, the VA said a national RIF would be unnecessary after the department lost roughly 17,000 employees since January.
The VA said it was on pace to reduce its number of employees by nearly 30,000 nationwide by the end of September, the end of the federal government’s fiscal year.
Earlier this year, there were about 2,355 full-time employees at the Dayton VA Medical Center. Local VA spokespeople have said there have not been large job losses locally since the Trump administration took office.
What else is happening in Dayton?
• Planned Parenthood closures: The Hamilton and Springfield Planned Parenthood health centers will close after this month following President Donald Trump’s signing the federal reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill, into law on July 4. The bill bars health care providers that offer abortion services from participating in the Medicaid program. Centers will lose out on millions of dollars in what Planned Parenthood officials called “vital” reimbursement funding, “targeting providers that serve the most vulnerable.”
• Federal cuts to public media: Leaders of public media outlets like WYSO and ThinkTV said $1.1 billion in a funding clawback from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will have a large local impact. For WYSO, the regional NPR station based in Yellow Springs, the federal funding cut would result in a combined $600,000 operating fund gap in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Public Media Connect, the regional nonprofit public media partnership of CET in Cincinnati and ThinkTV in Dayton, is set to lose $2.6 million annually with the rescission. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner voted against the $9 billion package of budget cuts that included the slashing of foreign aid spending — but he wouldn’t tell reporters what exactly he opposed in the plan.
• WPAFB: The Air Force had not yet responded to public questions about the four-star command status of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, expressed in a letter sent earlier this month by Ohio’s senators and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner. Turner also quietly sent a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink on June 20 stating his conviction that the command needs and deserves the leadership of a four-star general, the highest rank an officer can attain in the Air Force. Wright-Patterson is the largest single-site employer in Ohio, with more than 35,000 military and civilian employees.
• Springfield: Archbishop of Cincinnati Robert Casey welcomed Haitian and Hispanic immigrants to St. Raphael’s Church in Springfield on Sunday, where he celebrated Mass honoring the act of hospitality in a city that’s welcomed thousands of newcomers in recent years. Gov. Mike DeWine also attended the mass, supportive of the archbishop’s message of community. Springfield and Clark County leaders have long estimated that the region is home to 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants.
Other federal updates:
• Epstein, Russia: Trump this week deflected questions over the Justice Department’s decision to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2022 of helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence. Trump has denied knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes and said he ended their friendship years ago. Under pressure by some members of his political base to release more files from the Epstein case, Trump’s administration instead released a new report casting doubt on findings about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
• AI Action Plan: Trump unveiled a new plan for America’s approach to artificial intelligence, proposing cuts to environmental regulations to speed up the construction of AI supercomputers while promoting the sale of American-made AI technologies. The plan prioritizes AI innovation and adoption, urging the removal of any “red tape” that could be slowing down adoption. Trump’s plan also seeks to block the government from contracting with tech companies unless they “ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”
• Tariffs: Trump said he has reached a trade agreement with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which will see the U.S. slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there. Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. would impose a 19% tariff rate on the Philippines, down from a 20% tariff he threatened starting Aug. 1.
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