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on Corva Coleman. House Republicans passed a framework for a federal budget plan last night. It was on a near party line vote. It calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and it slashes $2 trillion in federal spending over a decade. But to succeed, the budget plan has to maneuver through a legislative process in both the House and Senate. It's called

reconciliation. House Speaker Mike Johnson is optimistic. This is the first important step,

and it opening up the reconciliation process. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us,

but we are going to deliver the American First Agenda. We're going to deliver all of it,

not just parts of it, and this was the first step in that process.

Democrats and some moderate Republicans fear that in order to pay for the immense tax cuts,

the GOP will slice Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs long targeted by some conservative Republicans.

Thousands of federal workers are losing their jobs as part of the Trump administration's

efforts to downsize the government.

The cuts range from public health to consumer protection and more.

Now the Department of Veterans Affairs has cut an additional 1,400 jobs.

NPR's Quill Lawrence reports veterans groups have condemned the cuts.

Job cuts at the VA now total around 2,500, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW, called

indiscriminate firings. Nearly a third of VA staffers are veterans themselves, and several of those

let go say they received excellent reviews before sudden termination for poor performance.

Veterans fired from the VA suicide crisis hotline, told NPR they were let go and suddenly rehired days later. Senators on the

Veterans Affairs Committee from both parties say they have asked but not received explanations

from VA about the cuts. In a statement, VA said none of the jobs cut are mission

critical and that VA continues to hire for more than 300,000 critical posts that are exempt

...