Doug Collins:

Well, the one thing, this will be a probationary employee who was let go. This is where this has been coming from the process, which is an understanding we’re looking at the total picture.

This is an employee also that was in a non what was deemed out of those 300,000-plus jobs that I mentioned earlier, not a front-facing position that affects veterans’ health directly or veterans’ benefits directly.

Look, this is something that we have. There’s nothing that I take more serious than having to look at our work force and making — and having layoffs that happen. We feel for that, but it happens not only in government. It happens all across the country in many jobs that we’re seeing just in the last little bit with Southwest Airlines and others who are announcing large layoffs.

These are the kind of things that are hard to do, and there’s something not easy and I take very seriously, but also in the perspective that we have to look out and say, are we going to be fulfilling the mission that the president has asked us to do? And that is to take care of our veterans, but also do it in a cost-effective and very efficient manner.

And, again, one of the things that I have said here that’s not mentioned very much in the press is, if this was an area in which it should have been flagged or if this was a mistake and it shouldn’t have been part of this probationary, there is an exemption process that has been used many times, but undoubtedly in this person’s case, their supervisor decided, or they decided not to ask for the exemption because their position, where it was and what was going on.

So, again, it is bad when anyone lose their job, but there are things in place to make sure that we are trying to target as best we can the areas that we need to.