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Members of Congress joined former federal employees outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to honor State Department and USAID workers who lost their jobs to sweeping cuts last year by the Department of Government Efficiency.
The DOGE purge forced tens of thousands of federal workers out of their government positions.
They included many Americans who worked on international programs for the State Department and USAID, which was gutted when its contracts were slashed.
Dozens of former federal workers gathered near the Capitol, along with Virginia and Maryland lawmakers, who vowed to keep working on their behalf.
Rep. James Walkinshaw, who represents Virginia’s 11th District, said the employees had carried out valuable work, saving lives through humanitarian and health outreach overseas.
“We’re not going to end that fight until we stop more damage from occurring,” he said to cheers. “We’re not going to end that fight until we undo the damage that has been done.”
Caught up in the DOGE purge
Maryum Saifee had a rewarding job with the U.S. Foreign Service until she lost it last year as DOGE cuts swept through the federal government.
She questions whether DOGE actually saved money and made the State Department more efficient.
“Taxpayers invested over $35 million just in our language training,” she said. “Now, the department is spending that much and more to train our replacements from scratch. That’s not efficiency.”
Former employees held up signs with messages including, “Reinstate State Department Jobs” and “Reinstate USAID Jobs.”
Rep. Steny Hoyer, who represents Maryland’s 5th District, said the DOGE cuts had no logic to them.
“In a few days of time, people came in who had no idea of the consequences of their actions,” he said. “All they knew was to get to numbers. How many people could they fire?”
DOGE was disbanded July 4 and the Trump administration has no plans to assess its impact.
Walkinshaw and Hoyer were joined Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Rep. Don Beyer, who represents Virginia’s 8th District, along with leaders from federal employee unions.
The “Missing Badge” event included the posting of large placards explaining the human rights, humanitarian and healthcare outreach to which the workers had been committed.
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