MONTANA — It may be oversight, or an unintended consequence, but due to the federal hiring freeze put in place by President Donald Trump, it’s become more difficult for veterans who rely on ride-share programs to make their VA appointments.
Legally, volunteer drivers for the Disabled American Veterans program are termed as, ‘non-compensated VA employees’. They are responsible for ensuring veterans who can’t drive themselves make their VA appointments and fulfill their health needs, such as, re-filling prescriptions and receiving medical attention.
As non-compensated VA employees, they fall under the same umbrella as other paid employees and cannot be hired during the freeze.
It’s a program that was already stretched thin on volunteers. Now a vetting process which takes three months to onboard a new volunteer, has been delayed for weeks, and it’s creating more work for the few involved.
“Normally as a volunteer I would be doing one drive a week,” says Shannon Wilson, a volunteer driver with the DAV. “This week I'm driving three times.”
There are two hospital service coordinators in Montana, one for the eastern, and the other for the western half of the state. They help direct the DAV’s van driver program. Currently, one is outside of the country’s and the other stepped down last year. Before completing the hiring process for their replacement, the freeze took effect.
“Our one remaining hospital service coordinator has been covering the whole state,” says Wilson. “We have one volunteer that's struggling to try and keep the program going.”
Shannon has been representing Montanas’ VFW’s in Washington D.C., highlighting issues and coordinating responses for Montana’s veterans with local elected officials. With just her absence, the DAV cannot compensate for her loss.
“I wasn't here to take those extra rides and we had to turn down a veteran that had an appointment on Monday, and it broke my heart that they had to turn them down.”
It’s an unfortunate reality that many veterans can’t afford. Appointments don’t grow on trees.
‘They can be set back 2 to 3 months waiting for another appointment, which could be catastrophic to their health,” says ‘Cowboy’. He’s a retired Gunnery Sergeant with the U.S. Marines. He’s also the bartender at VFW Post 1087.
“As a Post, we can only do so much to help out a veteran that needs to get to an appointment or has a physical problem that they can't handle,” Cowboy added.
Nationwide, the VA had 40,000 job listings prior to the federal hiring freeze. Since the freeze, there are 600 postings. These are for healthcare positions which have been exempted.
That means there are currently around 39,400 positions needing to be filled by the VA, including the Western Montana Hospital Service Coordinator, an individual Wilson says is needed for effective record-keeping.
“I do my monthly report at the end of the month and send it to the hospital coordinator, and there's nobody there to put the data in,” she says.
Wilson told MTN that, while in D.C., she spoke with the office for Senator Steve Daines. His camp was unaware that drivers were unable to be hired. They are now working with the Presidents’ administration to ratify these ‘unintended consequences.’
An e-mail sent out on the afternoon of February 12th by the Montana DAV Adjutant, Chase Natalie, says that volunteer onboarding is officially still on hold for an indefinite period.
There are around 85,000 veterans in Montana. Every month, up to 1,700 rely on ride-share programs to make their critical appointments, according to the Montana VA.
