Over the past two years, The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has been spending health care dollars to carry out the thousands of “downgrades” (reclassification of positions to lower GS pay levels). Even though Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rules and VA’s own regulations require regular review of all positions in the agency, the VA decided to target its lowest paid workers in staff support positions. It is time for the VA to acknowledge its real agenda behind these discriminatory downgrades: saving money on the backs of its lowest paid workers while continuing to hire more highly paid SES managers, consultants and contractors at the other end of the pay scale!