The Trump administration’s ongoing push to slash the federal workforce and spending is continuing to raise angst, with recent rounds of cuts drawing the ire of a leading local veterans organization and the New England Aquarium.

Veterans and advocates from the Massachusetts chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars are heading to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with the state’s congressional delegation. The group said it wants to hear from Bay State veterans and their families so they can provide lawmakers with evidence of the impacts they say recent Department of Veterans Affairs firings are having on people who served in the country’s military.

The VFW said it has concerns about continuity of care, efficiency in processing benefits and the overall morale of veterans given cuts made at the VA, including facilities in Massachusetts. The group said its members worry “that the sudden staffing changes could lead to longer waiting times for services, disruptions in medical treatment, and delays in disability and pension claims,” all longstanding issues that veterans’ groups and the VA have been working to address.

“Our veterans have sacrificed so much for this country, and they deserve a VA system that is stable, reliable, and fully staffed with experienced professionals,” said Jody Freitas, Massachusetts VFW state commander. “Sudden firings without clear explanations or transition plans risk undoing years of progress.”

The cuts are part of an effort led by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an unofficial task force created by President Trump, to shrink the federal workforce and align federal spending with Trump’s political agenda.

In mid-February, the VA announced that it had dismissed more than 1,000 employees to save about $98 million annually that it said could be directed back towards veterans’ care. At the end of the month, the VA announced that another 1,400 employees were dismissed to save an annual $83 million. The VA said its cuts were part of the “government-wide Trump administration effort to make agencies more efficient, effective and responsive to the American People.”

“These and other recent personnel decisions are extraordinarily difficult, but VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors as possible,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said, pledging information on how the savings are utilized in the coming months. “These moves will not hurt VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries. In fact, Veterans are going to notice a change for the better.”

Last week, the Associated Press reported that the VA had temporarily suspended the cancellation of nearly $2 billion worth of contracts as veterans advocacy organizations and lawmakers raised concerns that the move would jeopardize services for veterans.

A rally was planned for Monday morning outside the Maryland headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where hundreds of employees on probationary status were fired and hundreds more resigned last week. The AP report estimated the cut of about 1,300 employees represented roughly 10% of the agency staff.

Meteorologists who rely on NOAA’s data and research for weather-forecasting and entities that rely on NOAA’s research program have spoken out about the cuts to the science-focused agency. The head of the New England Aquarium said the marine science and management that NOAA provides for New England and the rest of the country are “essential to maintaining a healthy ocean, which sustains life on Earth and a thriving blue economy.”

“The New England Aquarium has worked closely with NOAA for decades and deeply values their far-reaching expertise along with their partnership in our scientific research and conservation work to safeguard marine species and habitats,” aquarium President and CEO Vikki Spruill said. “A healthy ocean and a habitable planet need scientists, the government, and private industry to work together to address threats the ocean faces for the future of our planet.”

The Project 2025 plan, a 900-plus page blueprint for governing produced by the far-right Heritage Foundation and dismissed by Trump during last year’s campaign, called for NOAA to be “broken up and downsized” and said it was “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” Some of the plan’s authors are now in leading roles in the Trump administration.