Congressional Democrats rallied outside the White House on Tuesday to defend furloughed federal workers who were ostensibly laid off by the Trump administration late last week amid the government shutdown.
A dozen lawmakers representing Maryland and Virginia — two states with a large federal workforce — described the “reductions in force,” or RIFs, as the latest bit of mean-spirited and legally dubious management coming from Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought.
“Donald Trump and Russ Vought and all their cronies are using this moment to terrorize these patriotic employees,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, with a group of federal workers standing behind him.
“Firing and threatening to fire federal employees is part of the Trump administration’s campaign to inflict trauma on our federal workers. ‘Trauma’ is not my word,” he added, noting that Vought himself once used the term to describe his goal for civil servants.
The Trump administration said in a court filing Friday that it was getting rid of around 4,000 workers as part of layoffs at the Education Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies. Under the law, workers must be given 60 days’ notice before losing their jobs, and the workers’ unions have pledged to fight the reductions in court.
