Democrats on the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee convened final week for a “shadow hearing,” assessing a spread of impacts from the Trump administration’s federal workforce overhauls all through 2025.
Marking practically one 12 months for the reason that administration directed businesses to compile reduction-in-force (RIF) and reorganization plans to scale back headcount, committee members mirrored on the varied penalties throughout businesses, calling them “devastating.”
“We had a lot of people who struggled — people who were career employees, who were doing outstanding work, getting great reviews year after year, who found their calling in the federal government and then were forced out,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) mentioned on the Feb. 12 listening to, held in Fairfax County, Virginia. “We need to make sure we do everything we can to try and turn it around.”
In the course of the listening to, lawmakers and witnesses each criticized the current finalization of Schedule Coverage/Profession — a brand new employment classification that, as soon as absolutely applied, is predicted to take away long-standing job protections for tens of hundreds of profession federal workers in “policy-influencing” roles, making it simpler for businesses to fireplace them.
Religion Williams, director of the Efficient and Accountable Authorities program on the Undertaking on Authorities Oversight, mentioned Schedule Coverage/Profession would “completely decimate our civil service.”
“What we end up having is a population not only that will have a harder time blowing the whistle, but a chilling effect across everybody who is left,” Williams mentioned. “Who is going to put their neck out on the line at the risk of being fired at least, and bullied and harassed at worst? It’s really a many-pronged attack on whistleblowers.”
Doreen Greenwald, nationwide president of the Nationwide Treasury Staff Union, highlighted one other widespread problem for federal workers who retired via the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program (DRP). The newest numbers present that greater than 54,000 retirement purposes are pending on the Workplace of Personnel Administration and awaiting a remaining annuity — greater than 4 instances the standard degree. Some purposes are nonetheless caught with businesses, as workers go months with no pension.
“They are waiting six to nine months for their first annuity payment because of these failures — some are facing foreclosure or have lost their homes. Some have even lost their health care benefits,” Greenwald mentioned. “This is unacceptable.”
To reform the civil service for the long run, Greenwald urged different coverage reversals, together with via restoring collective bargaining, halting additional layoffs, stopping Schedule Coverage/Profession and enhancing federal pay.
“The federal government should be the place where talented Americans can dedicate their careers to serving their country, not a place they avoid out of fear of being abused and discarded,” Greenwald mentioned, including that, “having threats over people’s heads, having people removed that have decades of experience, you lose the expenses that the government has already paid.”
Coinciding with the Feb. 12 listening to, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the oversight committee’s rating member, launched a report detailing the broad-reaching influence of the Division of Authorities Effectivity. The brand new report, as an illustration, factors to proof exhibiting that company cuts led to delays and lowered companies on the Social Safety Administration, in addition to vital challenges on the IRS forward of submitting season.
The report additionally famous the direct impacts on the federal workforce, notably following the Trump administration’s February 2025 memo on RIF and reorganization plans.
“The following months involved insulting and threatening treatment of federal employees, waves of mass terminations of employees with outstanding performance and essential skills, fumbling efforts to rehire critical employees that had been carelessly and disrespectfully fired, and a stream of early retirements that signify a civil service so antagonized that many of its members were forced out of public service positions they once cherished,” the report states.
Former federal workers who have been impacted by the Trump administration’s workforce overhauls all through 2025 additionally testified on the Democrats’ listening to, detailing their private experiences and elevating considerations about what they noticed at varied businesses.
Kelly Jabar, a former program specialist on the Meals and Drug Administration, described what it felt prefer to be fired as a part of the Trump administration’s mass probationary terminations, regardless of receiving a number of awards and a current promotion and having no efficiency points.
“My dream job has turned into a nightmare,” she mentioned.
Jabar additionally described a number of points in how her company managed worker separations, together with confusion over the place to ship authorities tools, mix-ups of delicate personnel information, and no info on how lengthy medical insurance would final post-employment — one thing she mentioned was particularly necessary to her given a current breast most cancers prognosis.
“I just wanted to heal, and this just keeps giving me more and more stress,” she mentioned. “This is all breaking my heart.”
Jacob Cross, a former administration and program analyst on the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, testified about his expertise final 12 months, as he was caught up in NOAA’s workforce overhauls, and in the end, layoffs.
“We lost staff, navigated executive orders and had crisis meetings on a near daily basis,” Cross mentioned. “My program office went into survival mode. There wasn’t staffing or time to implement improvements, because everyone’s energy was needed just to keep the mission going.”
The listening to comes shortly after a gaggle of Home and Senate lawmakers launched a brand new Federal Workforce Caucus, trying to extra cohesively advocate for federal workers and assemble plans for long-term civil service reforms. Whereas calling out DOGE’s dangerous results on federal workers and businesses, lawmakers additionally mentioned paths ahead within the long-term.
“One of the things that keeps me up is when this era ends, and it will, how do we convince the talented people who have been pushed out of the government to come back, or new talented people to come into the government, given what has taken place?” Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) mentioned.
Rob Shriver, managing director of the Civil Service Robust and Good Authorities initiatives at Democracy Ahead, mentioned future civil service reforms should concentrate on rebuilding belief and reestablishing guardrails. In the course of the listening to, he emphasised the significance of telling the tales of public servants, as a approach to inform the general public and restore belief in authorities.
“[Federal employees] are not waking up every morning and saying, ‘How can I thwart Donald Trump?’ They’re waking up every morning thinking about how they can do their job for the American people. We need to get those stories out there,” mentioned Shriver, a former OPM performing director throughout the Biden administration. “We need to engage everybody to reimagine a government that works even better than what we had before. Because what’s happening right now, it’s not going to allow us to just go back to the status quo. We’ve got to think bigger and bolder about what comes next.”
If you need to contact this reporter about current adjustments within the federal authorities, please e-mail drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or attain out on Sign at drewfriedman.11
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