Latest news with #ForkOffCoalition
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Republicans are dodging fired federal staff: ‘They will not even look in our direction'
Workers hit by the Trump administration's sweeping cuts of federal government jobs, programs and services turned to congressional Republicans for help. But Republicans don't want to talk about it, according to people who have tried to reach the politicians. Sabrina Valenti, a former budget analyst for the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), was fired in February, then reinstated, and fired again weeks later. She started contacting Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives to express concern. 'They represent hundreds of thousands or millions of people and those people deserve a safe and healthy life,' said Valenti. 'They are allowing the people who create that safe and healthy life to be fired.' But as she worked with other fired federal workers in the Fork Off Coalition to reach members of Congress, the responses ranged 'from indifference and being ignored to outright hostility', Valenti claimed. Senators Josh Hawley and Chuck Grassley 'just will not even look in our direction' in the hallways, she said. Hawley and Grassley's offices did not respond to requests for comment. The House of Representatives narrowly passed Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill on Thursday, which would extend tax cuts for individuals and corporations; sunset clean energy incentives enacted under Joe Biden; relieve taxes on tips, overtime and car loan interest; and fund construction of a wall along the border with Mexico, and facilities for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. To offset its costs, the GOP has approved funding cuts and new work requirements for Medicaid, which provides healthcare for poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as Snap, which provides food benefits to low-income families. Analysts fear these changes will bar millions from these benefits. Jeanne Weaver worked as an aide for 35 years at the Ebensburg Center in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, one of two state-operated facilities for adults with intellectual disabilities, and is worried about the facility's future . But when Weaver, now president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Retiree Chapter 13, tried to reach her representative in Congress, the Republican John Joyce, she had no luck. Even when she traveled to Washington, she was unable to get a meeting. 'I've called, I've left him messages,' Weaver told the Guardian. 'If he votes for cuts for Medicaid, I will make sure everyone knows him, because they don't know him now. He's hiding out, not doing what his constituents want him to do.' After the Guardian went to Joyce for comment, Weaver heard from a member of his staff. His office declined to comment. On Sunday, after House Republicans advanced Trump's tax cut and spending package out of a key committee, Joyce claimed the legislation would 'strengthen, secure, and preserve' Medicaid for 'future generations of Americans who need and deserve these benefits'. John Kennedy, senator for Louisiana, did speak with Valenti – a graduate of Louisiana State University – about her program at Noaa, and its impact on Louisiana's coast. 'He seemed really certain that if there was any, if any mistakes were made in the past, that they would be able to go back and reverse them,' Valenti said. Kennedy's office did not respond to requests for comment. Other workers reliant on federal funds that have been cut, or are facing cuts, have also been pressuring their elected officials to address their worries. Jesse Martinez, a teacher and co-president of the La Crosse Education Association in La Crosse, Wisconsin, expressed concern about cuts to education, Medicaid and Snap benefits to staff working for the Republican representative Derrick Van Orden. The staff claimed Van Orden would not vote for cuts to Medicaid or Snap benefits, according to Martinez – but he voted for a budget blueprint that included cuts. 'In the school district of La Crosse, we receive approximately $500,000 per year in Medicaid funding. We use that to pay for speech and language pathologists in our schools, occupational and physical therapists across the district and school nurses in our schools,' said Martinez. 'Losing that funding would be devastating to our kids.' Van Orden argued in a statement that 'being fiscally responsible and protecting benefits for vulnerable Americans can exist in the same universe', and a spokesperson for Van Orden denied the budget bill cuts Medicaid. Stephanie Teachman, an administrative assistant at the State University of New York at Fredonia, and president of Suny Fredonia Local 607, an affiliate union of AFSCME, fears that cuts could threaten the future of the only hospital in her rural area, Brooks Memorial, and the university, which is one of the largest employers in the area. But attempts to speak with her congressional representative, the Republican representative Nick Langworthy, have not elicited any responses, she said. 'I've been to Langworthy's office and he's never there. We've written letters to him, and he doesn't respond,' she added. 'All of us deserve to have a voice and be heard. It's unfortunate the people we vote for aren't listening to us and they don't seem to care what people of their districts are up to or what life is like for us.' A spokesperson for Langworthy claimed his office did not hear from Teachman until a few hours before a debate on the budget bill. 'Not one penny is being cut from eligible Americans who rely on Medicaid,' the spokesperson claimed in an email, accusing Democrats of 'dishonest fearmongering'. In Washington, those urging Republicans to resist cuts to key services have struggled to make headway. Senator Bill Cassidy's office 'kicked us out', said Valenti, who noted the senator Katie Britt of Alabama called Capitol police on some fired federal workers, and that the Indiana Republican senator Jim Banks called a fired health and human services worker, Mack Schroeder, a 'clown' who 'probably deserved it'. Senators Britt, Cassidy and Banks's respective offices did not respond to requests for comment. Senator Banks declined to apologize for his remarks following the incident and said he 'won't back down'. Four of the largest public sector unions in the US – AFSCME, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Service Employees International Union, collectively representing 8.3 million workers – have launched a new campaign to target GOP representatives over the cuts. The drive includes a $2m ad campaign across 18 congressional districts held by Republicans, including in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Arizona. 'Their goal is the gutting of the schools and hospitals that help working Americans have a shot at a better life. And for what? To pay for tax cuts for billionaires,' said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. 'These ads send a message to Congress about the human toll of the administration's attacks.'
CBS News
26-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Federal workers urge congressional lawmakers to reverse job cuts
Washington — As federal workers continue to face massive layoffs, some are bringing their job search to Capitol Hill. The newly-formed Fork Off Coalition, composed of recently laid off government employees, held a job fair and staged a sit-in at a Senate building Tuesday. They targeted the offices of Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Tammy Duckworth and Lindsey Graham. Organizers have been holding informal training sessions with terminated workers over several days on the Hill. Representing an alphabet soup of agencies with various levels of tenure, each worker is paired up and dispatched to a Senator's office to share their stories. One worker, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, had been placed on administrative leave from the Administration for Children and Families, which is housed under the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency oversees programs ranging from Head Start to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She brought her sixth-grade son to walk the halls of Congress with her, calling it a "civics lesson." "I have three children and I had to sit them down and tell them that I had been fired illegally from my job," she explained. "And both my son and my daughter were asking, like, what are we going to do? Will we be able to buy things?" Wiping away tears, she said they wanted to lend a hand. "My son offered to sell his, like, card collection to like, make money for our family," she recalled. "My daughter has a birthday next month and she was like, 'Mom, you don't have to buy me any presents, like, if we need to save money.'" Her last day on the job is approaching next month. She says she was one of nearly 200 probationary employees in her agency that were told they were let go due to their performance, even though she and other colleagues had received "outstanding" reviews. Another worker, who also did not want to be identified, had recently completed her probationary period at the National Science Foundation. She said she was reclassified into that category. "They didn't notify us," she said. "We found out through no proper channels. It was just an email, come to this meeting at 10 o'clock. You're back on probation and now you're fired." She said roughly 10% to 12% of the workforce was cut at NSF, which she called the "heart and soul of science, engineering, and R&D" in the United States. "We are all PhD scientists. We're all former professors. We're all experts doing, you know, doing the best we can every single day to make sure our tax dollars are well invested," she said. The workers said they have been received "very well" by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. "We're looking for senators to get a backbone, whether they are Republican or Democrat, to actually do something to protect the rule of law," said a former worker at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was effectively dismantled last month. Thousands of government employees have been laid off as the Trump administration seeks to scale back the federal workforce. Last week, a federal judge declined a request from a group of labor unions to block the mass firings. The wide-ranging reductions have been ordered across agencies including the Pentagon, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Education, US Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Fork Off Coalition has held demonstrations outside of various agencies to protest the cuts by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk. The coalition hopes to keep the pressure on Congress. "We want to make visible the actual personal impacts of these illegal firings," said the former USAID worker. "We want to help senators understand their responsibility and any kind of potential actions they can take to support, not only individuals who are hurting from the illegal firings, but their communities that are going to be reeling from the impact."
