Former Feds Share Hardships, Concerns After Trump's Mass Layoffs

MCLEAN, VA — Eleven former federal employees who lost their jobs earlier this year due to President Donald Trump’s move to shrink the size of the government’s workforce shared their stories during a roundtable discussion at the McLean Government Center.

Fairfax County Supervisors Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville) and James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock) hosted the event to raise awareness of the impact the mass layoffs have had on Fairfax County, as well as the hardships and disruption those fired workers have faced in the aftermath.

Jake Cross worked as a contractor for NOAA’s satellite and technology division for several years before joining the federal service at the end of last year. Ironically, he became a federal employee for the job security it promised. He was laid off Feb. 27.

“It was particularly rough for my family because my wife and I, we have a 2-year-old, because of the stability of the government and the benefits and everything, and made the decision to try to have another kid,” Cross said. “So literally, the week before I got fired, I found out that my wife was pregnant, so we also lost our benefits.”

Cross started a new job with a government contractor in June, but he had to take a 36 percent pay cut. The job also did not offer any benefits.

“We had to clear out our savings to cover expenses,” he said. "We're trying to figure out how to scrape things together."

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Tiffany Price was notified by email that she was one of the thousands of people laid off April 1 as part of a mass reduction in force at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she worked for nearly a decade.

Price didn’t receive the official email until July 14, because the day she was laid off, the agency cut off her access to her email account. Without the letter, she had no way of showing prospective employers her job status or why she was let go.

“Losing my job was devastating,” Price said. “It was not just a job loss, it was a mission loss, a team loss, a promise loss, a future loss. I fully intended to retire from the federal government. I loved my agency. I loved the work that I did. I loved my team. To just be unceremoniously cut, as much as this administration loves a thank you, I was not given a thank you.”

Impact Of Mass Layoffs On Government Services

While many of the roundtable’s participants talked about their personal hardships, some were concerned about the loss of institutional knowledge as agencies were shuttered and positions eliminated.

Sarah Cooley was the director of NOAA’s oceanic research and certification program, which monitored long-term oceanic health.

“The people who really depend on that are the regional water quality managers, fishery resource managers, businesses that do aquaculture," Cooley said. "They all need that information to function and to manage their resources as best they can. That’s all 50 states. That's all territories, and our work also was being pulled by international partners. This work has global significance, and we are just gradually eroding its availability, its continuity.”

Walkinshaw, who is running against Republican Stewart Whitson in the Sept. 9 special election to fill the vacant seat in Virginia's 11th Congressional District, said Americans are experiencing a decline in governmental services as a result of the mass layoffs.

"We saw it in Texas in the wake of the floods, where the search and rescue was delayed because of bureaucracy," he said. "We saw the challenges in forecasting. It's clear that the staffing cuts had significant impact there. We've seen veterans struggling to access the care they deserve because of the cuts there. Those impacts are happening."

Trump's Dismantling Of The Federal Government

As early as Dec. 5, 2024, billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy met with Republican lawmakers to discuss then President-Elect Trump’s plan to dismantle parts of the federal government, according to the Associated Press.

Trump tapped the two business leaders to head his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations — all part of what he calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House, AP reported.

In addition, about 75,000 federal employees had agreed to take the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” offer by Feb. 12, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

A day later, the Trump administration ordered all agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees, according to AP. This affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers who had been on the for less than a year.

Federal agencies that were slated for closure, consolidation or a reduction in force include the Department of Education, General Services Administration, National Park Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Social Security Administration, U.S. Postal Service, and USAID.

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.