WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to lay off as many as 83,000 employees later this year as part of a plan to return the agency’s workforce to pre-pandemic levels, according to an internal memo obtained Tuesday.

The VA hired tens of thousands of workers in recent years to handle a surge of new veterans eligible for care and benefits, particularly under the PACT Act, which expanded coverage for toxic exposure illnesses. But the department is now planning to reverse much of that hiring, bringing staffing back to levels not seen since 2019.

According to the memo, VA currently employs about 482,000 workers, including 459,000 full-time employees. The target set for the new round of cuts is 399,000 workers, the level VA maintained five years ago. The reductions are expected to affect every part of the agency, from health care to benefits processing, the memo said.

VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek outlined the plan in the memo, saying the department would partner with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to create a “workforce optimization plan” to manage the layoffs. The cuts will focus on reducing management layers, shrinking the department’s physical footprint, and improving productivity, according to Syrek.

The review will include a broader look at VA’s mission, structure, and overall organization, the memo said.

The planned workforce reduction follows two executive orders issued by President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to review their staffing levels and develop plans to reorganize and reduce their workforces. While the VA was largely exempt from past hiring freezes and avoided widespread layoffs under the previous orders, the agency now says staffing reductions are necessary.

More than one in four VA employees are veterans themselves, meaning the layoffs will likely have a direct impact on former service members working for the department.

VA set a record for hiring in 2023, adding 61,000 employees to the Veterans Health Administration alone, but hiring slowed in 2024. The memo did not provide a timeline for when the layoffs would begin or which positions would be affected first.