Maryland State GOP House members call Democrats ‘reactionary' in response to DOGE cuts. Dems ask why they're not standing up for federal workers.
BALTIMORE — Against the backdrop of a raging national fight as President Donald Trump overhauls the U.S. government, tensions bubbled up at the Maryland State House Wednesday over fired federal workers.
House Republicans accused Democrats of trying to battle the federal government while debating a bill that would provide the attorney general an additional $1.5 million to sue Trump's administration on behalf of the fired federal workers.
'We cannot overcome the federal government,' said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican. 'You are not going to stop the federal government through the operations of a state of six million people.'
House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis, a Prince George's County Democrat, said the legislation is not about dictating or responding to what happens in Washington, D.C. Its ultimate purpose, he said, is to stand up to protect federal workers. Lewis criticized Republicans in the chamber for not publicly doing the same.
'I have not heard you all stand up once to talk about how you are going to stand up for the workers in your districts — particularly the federal ones,' he said.
Because of its proximity to Washington, Maryland is uniquely impacted by mass layoffs at federal agencies being implemented by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In 2023, nearly 160,000 state residents worked for the federal government.
Buckel said that if lawmakers want to engage in 'lengthy, partisan' debates about national politics, then 'we'll be here every day.'
'Pack a lunch, pack a dinner, pack a midnight snack,' he said. 'I appreciate my friend, but when he says, 'We're here, we're going to protect our people,' why are our people only federal government workers?'
The Protect Our Federal Workers Act, sponsored by Lewis, would create the Federal Government Employee Assistance Loan Fund to provide money to Maryland residents who worked for the federal government but were terminated by the Trump administration during the ongoing waves of mass firings.
The legislation would allow money in Maryland's Catastrophic Event Account and Federal Government Shutdown Employee Assistance Loan Fund to provide six months of no-interest loans to federal employees who live in Maryland and aren't being paid due to a full or partial government shutdown. It would also help those who left their jobs because of the voluntary incentive payment program or were let go due to closures, relocations or mass layoffs at federal government agencies.
The bill was amended in the House Appropriations Committee to allow Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, to sue the Trump administration on behalf of terminated federal employees. An additional $1.5 million would also be allocated in the state budget to the attorney general's office to carry out lawsuits against the federal government.
Buckel unsuccessfully attempted to strip the $1.5 million from the bill and remove the attorney general's ability to sue the Trump administration on behalf of employees, whom he called 'private individuals who lost their job because of a policy decision or a budgetary decision.'
The attorney general litigates cases on behalf of the state of Maryland.
'The state doesn't have the right to enforce the employment and labor laws of the federal government on behalf of private individuals,' Buckel said. 'I'm going to bet you money … that if we do this and the attorney general brings suit, some court somewhere will say, 'Nope, you can't do that.''
Lewis said that the intent of the amended bill is to fight to protect all constituents, regardless of whether they work in the private or public sector. He said that the amendment would 'neuter' the bill, which empowers the attorney general to take on these cases because a significant portion of Maryland's economy is wrapped up in the federal workforce.
'We are fighting on our front foot,' he said. 'What this amendment does is it says Maryland is going to fight with our arms behind our back.'
Del. Chris Adams, a Republican representing the Lower Eastern Shore, disagreed with Lewis and called the bill 'reactionary.'
Maryland's current budget deficit is $3 billion, which Lewis said could be exacerbated by the layoffs.
Buckel said the state has become 'a ward of the federal government.'
'We are their orphan child,' he said. 'Our budgets are completely reliant — or largely reliant — upon their largesse.'
Roughly one-third of Maryland's budget is federal funding, and a significant portion of that goes to Medicaid.
Buckel also said that the federal government is a big economic driver for jurisdictions across the state because it is a 'major employer' in areas where the private sector is 'hollow.'
'Without those federal jobs, Maryland doesn't look so good,' Buckel said. 'We all want Maryland to be the best. If we had the same level of federal jobs that someone has in, say, Ohio or Oklahoma or Oregon, we would not look very good under almost any set of metrics.'
In defense of the legislation, House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes, a Democrat representing Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, said Democrats believe Trump is taking illegal action that directly impacts Marylanders through these mass firings.
'When the federal government takes adverse actions that is illegal, that adversely affects Marylanders, you're damn right we're going to fight,' Barnes said. 'We might not beat the federal government, but we're going to fight them. And our constituents who are hurting, who are losing their jobs — not just the federal workers, but the workers who are going to have the ancillary effects of that as it flows through the budget — should know today the Maryland legislature is going to stand here and fight for you.'
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