A key position at Maine’s Togus VA Medical Center is no longer on a list of positions being eliminated, according to federal officials.

The radiology safety officer was included on an initial list of cuts when the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that 875 contracts were being canceled. After pushback from elected officials, the VA altered its plan and reduced the cuts to 585 contracts. But it was not immediately clear whether the reduced list still included the radiation safety officer or other jobs at Togus, a 67-bed hospital outside Augusta with more than 1,000 employees.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, criticized the VA for its lack of transparency, and pointed out that cutting the radiology safety officer position could have resulted in the entire radiology department at Togus shutting down.

“Hospitals like Togus are required by multiple state and federal regulations to have a RSO (radiation safety officer),” King wrote in a March 6 letter to VA secretary Doug Collins.

King, in a written statement Wednesday, said he is relieved the radiology safety officer is safe from cuts, at least for now.

“This decision comes on the heels of much uncertainty for veteran health care in Maine. That ambiguity is an unacceptable way to treat the men and women who have worn the uniform of our armed forces,” King said.

The contract cancellations were separate from seven layoffs at Togus in February, part of a national reduction in the federal workforce. Collins, the VA secretary, has also said the department expects to cut about 80,000 positions by June, drastically reducing the agency’s workforce, which now totals 470,000 jobs.

Pete Kasperowicz, a VA spokesman, said in an email response this week to questions from the Press Herald that the radiation contract was not among those being canceled, “and the entire Togus VA Medical Center, including its radiation safety operations, continues to operate normally.”

Kasperowicz said the elimination of “non-mission-critical” contracts will save the VA $900 million.

“The money we’re saving by eliminating non mission-critical and duplicative contracts is money we’re going to redirect to Veteran-facing health care, benefits and services, resulting in massive improvements in customer service and convenience,” Kasperowicz said in a written statement.

But King, in a letter he and other House and Senate members of Veterans Affairs committees signed and sent to Collins, wrote that the proposed cutbacks will harm services for veterans.

“It defies logic and reason that the agency could cut an additional 83,000 employees, beyond the 2,400 or more you have already terminated, without health care and benefits being interrupted,” King and his colleagues wrote.

King has also repeatedly demanded a detailed list of the 585 canceled contracts, but so far has not gotten a list from the VA.

“I want to know what those contracts are. We’ve been asking that for a week. We have not been getting any answers,” King told a panel of VA officials at a Senate Veterans Affairs committee meeting on Tuesday.