This article by Leo Shane III originally appeared on Military Times, the nation's largest independent newsroom dedicated to covering the military and veteran community.

Voluntary retirements and resignations are expected to trim 30,000 Veterans Affairs workforce positions by the end of September, forgoing plans for potential forced resignations this fiscal year to meet administration goals to reduce the size of government, department leaders announced Monday.

Already, about 17,000 VA jobs have been vacated since Jan. 1 through a combination of deferred resignations, retirements, normal attrition and department hiring freezes, officials said. Another 12,000 posts are expected to be cleared out over the next two and a half months.

VA Secretary Doug Collins in a statement said that because of those significant workforce reductions — equalling a 6% decrease in the roughly 484,000 VA workforce last fall — department leaders are no longer discussing the idea of a department Reduction In Force process.

“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 statement. “As a result of our efforts, VA is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service.”