Thousands of people tuned in to a town hall with members of Maryland’s congressional delegation on Thursday night, seeking answers to lingering questions about the flurry of changes to the federal workforce.
The meeting, which was scheduled to be held on Zoom, was also accessible over the phone because of what an advertisement for the call described as increased interest. Rep. Glenn Ivey said over 14,000 people participated.
The call came in the hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to change the federal workforce by offering deferred resignations. During Thursday’s call, the lawmakers said because the government is only funded through the middle of March, it’s unclear whether the offer will even be honored.
“The actions Trump and (Elon) Musk have taken to vilify and terrorize our federal workers are illegal,” Rep. Steny Hoyer said. “They are incoherent, they are demeaning, and they ignore the very negative consequences for our nation.”
The group fielded pre-submitted questions from workers concerned about their futures. They ranged from what Congress is doing to intervene to whether it’s too late for some eligible federal workers to join unions.
“Congress may not have standing to sue, but we will urge people to take this issue to court, and that’s what’s been happening, and we have been urging that to happen,” Hoyer said, referring to the series of lawsuits in response to changes to the federal workforce and agencies.
Rob Shriver, the former head of the Office of Personnel Management, said workers are being asked to sign an agreement “that has language in it that tells you that you can’t enforce it.” The congressmen said they’re encouraging workers not to accept it.
Anyone who works for a Title Five agency, Shriver said, can file an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Shriver, who now works with the group Democracy Forward, said they’re also filing lawsuits in response to some of the executive actions.
Those suits, Hoyer said, “are essentially class action suits, and everybody in the class are those who are being adversely affected by these rules and requests and paper that is being sent to people almost every day with, frankly, a lot of misinformation.”
Ivey said because Democrats are down three votes in the House of Representatives, they’re looking to find Republicans who they can persuade to support their causes “that are in districts that Harris won. The idea is to push forward with some of these issues, like ones that are in court, but to force them to make tough decisions and then have their constituents in their districts push them to change and vote with us when the time comes.”
He added that about 80% of federal employees live outside the D.C. region.
Prince George’s County Council Chair Jolene Ivey, meanwhile, said anyone who may be looking to find another job should consider using Employ Prince George’s and the American Job Center as resources.
She also encouraged those who have lost a job to apply for unemployment. The county is home to tens of thousands of federal workers, Ivey said, and typically, the county would be working toward funding temporary relief efforts “to provide assistance to our residents, but this is not the time for our budget for that either.”
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