(TNND) — Enough Veterans Affairs employees are expected to leave through normal attrition and other means that mass layoffs can be avoided, the department announced Monday.

VA Secretary Doug Collins said a few months back that the department would try to cut its workforce by 15% to reach pre-pandemic employment levels. That announcement came as President Donald Trump pledged to prune the federal bureaucracy and carve out government waste.

VA, with the largest payroll of the 18 cabinet-level departments, seemed like a logical place to make cuts.

However, millions of men and women who have fought for our country depend on the care and benefits provided by VA.

And Collins vowed that the workforce cuts wouldn’t jeopardize health care or benefits for veterans.

Monday, VA said a "large-scale reduction-in-force" to slash manpower was no longer needed.

Close to 30,000 employees are expected to leave VA by the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of September.

And that’s apparently good enough for VA’s workforce goals.

The reductions come via normal attrition, early retirements, deferred resignations and the federal hiring freeze, according to VA.

And they represent just a 6% reduction in VA’s workforce, which numbered about 484,000 at the beginning of the year.

“Since March, we’ve been conducting a holistic review of the department centered on reducing bureaucracy and improving services to Veterans,” Collins said in a news release. “As a result of our efforts, VA is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service."

Most VA employees work in the health care side of the department, which delivers care to over 9 million enrolled veterans.

The Veterans Benefits Administration, meanwhile, serves over 5.5 million veterans who receive pensions, survivors' benefits, education assistance, home loan guaranties, and more.

Mission-critical positions are exempt from the deferred resignation program or the voluntary early retirement. And more than 350,000 positions are exempt from the federal hiring freeze.

Collins recently told lawmakers that no employees who answer phones at the Veterans Crisis Line were let go.

And VA touted performance outcomes, including a reduction in the disability claims backlog and an accelerated deployment of the integrated electronic health record system.

Republican Rep. Mike Bost, the chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, expressed confidence in VA under Collins’ leadership after the announcement that mass layoffs would be avoided.

“With today’s announcement from Secretary Collins, those who have spent the last six months yelling from the sidelines should have held off their criticism of potential plans until a plan was actually in place,” Bost said in a news release. “I look forward to continuing to work with the Secretary and President Trump to effect real change for the veterans VA serves. The status quo is not cutting it, and we will continue to cut through the nonsense and restore common sense at the agency to put veterans first and ultimately make the delivery of care and benefits work better."

Jim Lorraine, the president and CEO of America’s Warrior Partnership, a group that works on behalf of veterans, said veterans were nervous about VA staffing cuts.

But he said the updated scale of workforce reductions is a “heck of a lot better” than the 80,000 job cuts previously expected.

And that’s left him feeling encouraged.

“I am, but I just don't ... know where the cuts are,” he added.

But Lorraine said any federal bureaucracy has room for a reduction.

And he said there are plenty of functions across VA that can be consolidated in a way that doesn’t cut into either the front-line workers or the vital support staff.

“To (Collins’) point, he's not going to reduce the front line. I encourage, I hope, that he doesn't reduce the enablers of those front lines,” Lorraine said. “But if there are places where we can consolidate administrative functions to be more efficient, but to reduce costs, I'm all for it.”

VA said it’s looking at centralizing its 274 separate call centers and consolidating its payroll operations, along with searching out duplicated or inefficient support functions for police, procurement, construction, information technology and others.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the Veterans Crisis Line to receive free, confidential support and crisis intervention available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Dial 988 then Press 1, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat, or text 838255.