Embedded Files
Next Meeting: 02/09/26, 7 PM, Ozark-Dale Library
This is a subpage to highlight news regarding the Trump Administration's efforts to cut federal spending at the expense of dedicated federal workers that do important work for American citizens. It also highlights firings of key personnel that appear to be politically motivated or appear to be acts of retribution against those who may have investigated Trump in the past. Impacts of staff reductions to government agencies and offices that serve the public are discussed in many of these articles. Not all articles discussing firings and layoffs are found here. However, most are. If this sounds confusing, you try sorting all this news into defined categories.
Many articles focusing on legal efforts to fight these firings and layoffs are not listed here. Many of these efforts are discussed in articles found on the "Resistance to Trump Agenda" subpage.
AFGE urges appellate judges to uphold injunction against Trump’s anti-union EOs
Comment: "The nation’s largest federal employee union on Monday urged a panel of federal appeals judges to affirm a lower court ruling that found that President Trump’s executive orders purporting to strip two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights amounted to retaliation for protected speech under the First Amendment."
"Trump’s edicts, signed in March and August, cited a seldom-used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to exclude most federal agencies from federal sector labor law under the auspices of national security. A federal judge in California in June issued a preliminary injunction blocking the orders’ implementation, but a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that decision last summer, finding that the lower court did not adequately consider whether the president would have taken the same action against labor organizations absent their various legal challenges against the president’s personnel policies."
Comment: The legal battle continues, with the AFGE arguing that the original California ruling blocking Trump's executive orders were correct, and that the stay of the injunction should be removed, thereby reinstating the injunction against Trump's order.
Trump finalizes 1% pay raise for most feds
https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2025/12/trump-finalizes-1-pay-raise-most-feds/410276/
Comment: "The president also tasked OPM Director Scott Kupor with analyzing whether to provide federal law enforcement officers with a 3.8% pay increase, in line with what military service members are set to receive next month."
Comment: Since inflation is significantly higher than 1%, the purchasing power of federal worker pay, except as noted above, will be reduced.
‘In the dark:’ Retiring federal employees face major delays
AFGE Plans Legal Challenge After DHS Revokes TSA Collective Bargaining Agreement
House Republicans throw federal labor unions a lifeline in a rare rebuke of Trump | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/12/business/unions-labor-trump-republicans
Comment: Just 20 Republicans and the entire Democratic Caucus
House passes bill to restore collective bargaining for federal employees
Comment: "A bill to restore collective bargaining rights for a majority of federal employees cleared the House in a floor vote Thursday afternoon."
"House lawmakers voted 231-195 to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act. The entire Democratic Caucus, along with 20 Republicans, voted in favor of the legislation."
"The bill’s passage this week came after a discharge petition on the legislation reached the required 218-signature threshold in November, forcing the House to hold a floor vote on the bill. On Wednesday, the legislation cleared an initial voting hurdle, teeing it up for its final passage Thursday afternoon."
"The Protect America's Workforce Act, led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine), aims to nullify two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders this year that called for most agencies to end their union contracts. The legislation, if enacted, would restore collective bargaining for tens of thousands of federal employees."
Comment: A bipartisan effort in Congress is attempting to overturn Trump's efforts to strip federal workers of their union contracts. It took a discharge position to bypass House Republican leadership's attempt to stop a floor vote on this bill. Discharge petitions are becoming more frequent (and necessary) to allow House members to better represent their constituents, rather than Trump and the radical Republican leadership and their supporters.
Education Dept. asks hundreds of fired employees to temporarily return
Comment: "A Dec. 5 email obtained by USA TODAY shows the agency ordered a significant portion of staffers in the Office for Civil Rights to come back later this month. In the 'return to duty' directive, officials acknowledged they're facing a sizable caseload of civil rights complaints, and they underscored a need to utilize every resource at the government’s disposal to work through them."
"The agency said the request applies to roughly 250 workers who've been on administrative leave for months amid legal challenges to their March firings. Julie Hartman, the Education Department's press secretary for legal affairs, stressed there still aren't any plans to fully rehire those workers permanently."
Comment: "Students, parents and educators across the country have long relied on the agency's Office for Civil Rights, also known as OCR, to enforce antidiscrimination laws, especially for students with disabilities. In particular, OCR has helped provide equal access to educational opportunities to families who don't have the financial means to bring costly lawsuits against their school districts or universities."
"Yet as the Trump administration has proceeded to dismantle the Education Department – despite lacking the necessary congressional support to do so – the agency's civil rights office has been reduced to a fraction of what it once was. Hundreds of staffers have been laid off. Its key regional divisions in places like Philadelphia and Boston have been largely shuttered."
"Of the roughly 450 people OCR still lists as employees, only about 60 haven't received layoff notices in the past year, according to court documents. Nearly 250 were originally terminated in March, and another 137 were fired in October during the government shutdown (their firings were later reversed as part of a deal to end the funding crisis)."
"Education Secretary Linda McMahon's decision to tap into her own laid-off workforce provides further evidence her agency is struggling more than she has publicly indicated to meet its legally mandated responsibilities."
Comment: How's this for an indication of the chaos and confusion in the Trump administration? Please remember that Linda McMahon's prior experience includes her role as head of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Suspended FEMA workers who criticized Trump administration got their jobs back — until DHS leaders found out | CNN Politics
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/01/politics/fema-trump-suspension-investigation-letter
Comment: More chaos, confusion, and retribution, courtesy of the Trump administration.
Fired worker sues government in a case that could upend civil rights laws
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/01/g-s1-99279/fired-worker-sues-government
Comment: "Tania Nemer is one of dozens of immigration judges fired by the Trump administration this year."
"But a new lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., suggests what happened to Nemer — and why — has the potential to scramble the federal workforce and upend foundational civil rights laws."
"Nemer alleges that despite top performance reviews, she was dismissed from her job because of her gender, her status as a dual citizen of Lebanon and the fact that she once ran for municipal office in Ohio as a Democrat. Those reasons, she says, are all in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the First Amendment."
"The government has responded by arguing that the president's power to oversee the executive branch under Article II of the U.S. Constitution essentially overrides that core civil rights law, Nemer's attorney said."
" 'This is a case in which the President of the United States has asserted a constitutional right to discriminate against federal employees," wrote her lawyer, Nathaniel Zelinsky, of the Washington Litigation Group. 'If the government prevails in transforming the law, it will eviscerate the professional, non-partisan civil service as we know it.' "
"The administration abruptly fired Nemer in early February, summoning her from the bench and escorting her out of a federal building in Cleveland. Both her supervisor and the chief immigration judge there told her they didn't know why she was being dismissed in the middle of her probationary period, the lawsuit said."
More than 3,600 feds get notice their shutdown RIFs are rescinded
Comment: "That action came as a result of several provisions in the continuing resolution Congress passed last week to reopen the government. The legislation provided that not only any RIF notice an agency issued on Oct. 1 or later 'shall have no force or effect,' but it also barred federal agencies from using any funding to conduct any further RIFs for as long as the current CR is in effect."
House majority forces vote on bill to restore collective bargaining for most federal employees
Bipartisan House Coalition Hits 218 Signatures to Force Vote Protecting Federal Workers’ Union Rights
Trump slams air traffic controllers who called out during the government shutdown
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/10/nx-s1-5604664/trump-air-traffic-controllers-forced-time-off-bonus
Comment: "President Trump is slamming U.S. air traffic controllers who called out of work during the government shutdown, during which they were forced to stay on the job without pay."
"Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday morning that he was 'NOT HAPPY' with controllers who took time off. 'All Air Traffic Controllers must get back to work, NOW!!! Anyone who doesn't will be substantially 'docked,' ' he wrote."
"The Federal Aviation Administration had been contending with a shortage of air traffic controllers since well before the shutdown began, but the crisis deepened when the government closed and controllers received a partial paycheck and then no pay at all.. Some have taken on second jobs, while others have called in sick. Controllers are set to miss their second full paycheck this week."
"In a statement to NPR, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said, 'This nation's air traffic controllers have been working without pay for over 40 days. The vast majority of these highly trained and skilled professionals continue to perform one of the most stressful and demanding jobs in the world, despite not being compensated. Many are working six-day weeks and ten-hour days without any pay.' "
Comment: "Others offered sharp criticism of Trump's comments. 'The President wouldn't last five minutes as an air traffic controller,' former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a post on X, "and after everything they've been through - and the way this administration has treated them from Day One - he has no business s****ing on them now.' "
Editing federal employees’ emails to blame Democrats for shutdown violated their First Amendment rights, judge says | CNN Politics
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/07/politics/emails-blaming-democrats-shutdown-violate-first-amendment
White House sued over its "loyalist" hiring policy
https://www.axios.com/2025/11/06/trump-white-house-loyalist-hiring-policy-lawsuit
Comment: "A coalition of unions representing federal workers filed a lawsuit against the White House Thursday over the inclusion of what they say is a partisan loyalty question included in the Trump administration's 'merit-based' hiring plan.
"The hiring plan is one piece of the White House's massive overhaul of the civil service — and plaintiffs say it amounts to a partisan loyalty tests that is unlawful and violates the principles of a nonpartisan civil service."
Comment: "The Trump administration included four open-ended essay questions that could be used to evaluate candidates. Some relate to job performance like work ethic or efficiency."
Comment: "One question was widely criticized: 'How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?' The question asked candidates to identify 'Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.' "
How long will OPM keep paying for feds’ health insurance during the shutdown, a senator asks
Comment: "With the current government shutdown on the precipice of becoming the longest budget stalemate in history, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wants to know how the Office of Personnel Management plans on continuing to pay for federal employees’ health insurance."
"In an Oct. 30 letter to OPM Director Scott Kupor, Lankford inquired about the current status of the agency’s health insurance trust funds and what plans are in place to continue insurance coverage once their coffers run dry."
"OPM manages multiple trust funds that finance several federal employee health and retirement benefits programs — including the largest employer-sponsored group health insurance program in existence, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program — covering 8.1 million employees, retirees and their eligible family members."
"The FEHB Trust Fund pays health insurance premiums to private providers with financing made up from agency contributions for active employees, an annual appropriation for annuitants and survivors and premium contributions from the employees themselves."
"But as the current shutdown has now stretched for more than 35 days, federal employees have not been getting paid to contribute to those premiums, and Lankford said he was concerned that the deadlock will soon mean that the workforce could lose its health insurance as well."
For News Articles links from before November 1st, 2025, please go to one of the following, depending on the article date:
https://sites.google.com/view/dem3oldnews/home/old3-war-on-the-federal-workforce
OR
https://sites.google.com/view/dem2oldnews/home/old2-war-on-the-federal-workforce
There you will find a continuation of the news links & comments from the period prior to November 1, 2025. The article history can be viewed as follows:
www.dalecodemocrats.com (latest)
sites.google.com/view/dem3oldnews/home/ (May 1, 2025 - October 31, 2025)
sites.google.com/view/dem2oldnews/home/ (Topic Initialization - April 30, 2025)
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