Nadene Goldfoot
Billionaire Elon Musk and his Department Of Government Efficiency aides that look like college boys, have done the dirty work hurting more than 100,000 federal employees to have already lost their jobs in the past two months through layoffs of probationary employees, who are new to government work or recently moved between agencies or accepted a promotion.
The DOGE effort helmed by Elon Musk appears to be focusing on technology and personnel in its stated goal to cut government spending. Staffers (his squad) connected to DOGE and often to Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, are fanning out across federal agencies, where they are gaining access to sensitive systems and information on government payments and employees.
Trump tasked Musk with dramatically slashing government via the Department of Government Efficiency team. Its work has been secretive and controversial and has created chaos throughout the federal workforce.
Another about 75,000 federal employees accepted the original buyout offer Trump extended shortly after he took office. Is anybody going to work in this country again?
Federal workers of certain departments are being fired like the Dept of Education. Even the CIA is threatened ! Central Intelligence Agency: The agency has started to fire some probationary employees, multiple outlets reported, after firing some diversity staffers in February who had been placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government—it’s unclear what prompted the latest round of firings, but a federal judge ruled in February that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had the authority to fire officers at will. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: The agency is preparing to lay off more than 1,000 employees in a second round of layoffs that is expected to impact about 10% of its workforce. They are involved in weather forecasting. The VA will lose 80,000 workers, and one veteran I know feels there isn't enough help for them as it is.
Yesterday was the deadline for federal agencies and departments to give the Trump administration their plans for large-scale layoffs, and the details about how many people will be fired are expected to come out throughout the coming weeks.
Our government was designed to keep this from happening, yet it is trying, anyway. "The U.S. government is structured with three branches – Legislative, Executive, and Judicial – each with specific powers, designed to check and balance the others, preventing any one branch from becoming too powerful. "
The Judicial is trying the hardest to stop the firing. In separate rulings, judges in Maryland and California ordered the reinstatement of probationary workers fired last month across many agencies. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created an administrative agency inside the government to hear complaints from federal workers who say they have been wrongly demoted or discharged. And the Supreme Court said this agency provides the “exclusive forum” to decide those claims, not an independent federal court.
On December 20, the U.S. House and Senate passed a second Continuing Resolution (CR; H.R. 10545) to extend federal spending and avert a government shutdown through March 14, 2025. The bipartisan CR passed the U.S. House and Senate by bipartisan votes of 366-34 and 85-11 respectively just hours before midnight when the first stopgap measure was set to expire.
The Democrats do not want to be the ones who are responsible for the shutdown so would not vote.
Resource:
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288988/doge-elon-musk-staff-trump
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/13/federal-government-layoff-plans-due-trump-doge-cuts/82361211007/
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288988/doge-elon-musk-staff-trump
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