How Do You Mend a broken heart? By Maria Grant

This administration’s sledgehammer approach to dismantling the federal government has left massive devastation in its wake. Fun facts as we contemplate this eve of destruction: Federal employee salaries make up only 4.3 percent of the federal budget. Social Security makes up 22 percent, and Medicare and Defense each make up about 14 percent. Also, the Federal workforce was bigger in 1990 than it is today by about 400,000 workers. Please keep these facts in mind as we review some recent heartbreaking cases in point. 

A former colleague quit her consulting job to take her dream job at the National Institute of Health (NIH). Because she had been there less than a year, she was still a probationary employee. She lost her job last week. She is seven months pregnant. In addition to my former colleague, NIH laid off almost 1,200 probationary employees which included animal care technicians, pharmacists, lab managers, and procurement officers. 

So far, approximately 220,000 Federal probationary employees have been fired. These include federal employees with less than a year of service, federal employees who transferred to different positions, and federal employees who were recently promoted to new positions. 

A recent college graduate relocated to D.C. to work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His job involved weather forecasting, which is becoming increasingly important given the effects of climate change. He was given one hour to clean out his desk and exit the building. 

Because the National Park Service laid off approximately 1,000 workers, there are already long lines to get into the parks. Many reservations have been summarily canceled. There are also concerns that the lack of rangers will make it difficult to keep hikers and other park visitors safe.

The head of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food safety division resigned last week saying that the DOGE cuts will damage the FDA’s ability to safeguard our food supply. 

As of this date, RFK Jr. hasn’t been seen much at the Health and Human Services (HHS) building and has done nothing to address the measles outbreak. Within the last few weeks, more than 164 measles cases have been reported, and the first measles death in a decade occurred involving a school-age unvaccinated child in Texas. RFK Jr. claimed that “measles outbreaks are not unusual.” Don’t get me started on bird flu.

More than 1,000 employees from the Veteran’s Administration have been fired, including employees who were working on cancer treatments, opioid addictions, prosthetics, and burn pit exposure. 

Approximately 10,000 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have been placed on administrative leave. The dismantling of the Agency has sent global health into chaos, ending grants for HIV treatments and prevention, tuberculosis, polio, malaria, Ebola, and nutrition assistance for infants in developing countries. China is beginning to pick up the slack. 

More than 350 employees who work at the National Nuclear Security Administration were ousted, many of whom lost access to their email before they were fired. DOGE then attempted to reinstate some of them after realizing the error of their ways. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been ordered to stop all work—effectively shutting it down. Since its establishment in 2011, the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion to consumers by enforcing federal laws and protecting consumers from unfair business practices. 

Approximately 7,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers have been fired just as tax filing season hits full steam, which may delay tax refunds and the ability to answer phone calls or respond to help lines.

Nearly 300 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers were fired last month. There have been several aviation accidents just weeks after a midair collision over D.C. killed 67 people. 

Before the federal purge began, the U.S. government employed more than three million people. Federal workers live across the U.S., but the D.C. area has a disproportionate amount of them. Approximately 450,000 federal workers live in the D.C. area; about 162,000 live in D.C. (approximately 20 percent of D.C.’s population); about 144,000 live in Virginia; and approximately 143,000 live in Maryland. Of those living in Maryland, about 23,000 live on the Eastern Shore. (Interestingly, California has the most federal workers with more than 147,000.)

The sudden surge of unemployed workers in our area could have a devastating effect on our economy. Unemployed workers will seek new jobs, spend less money, potentially miss car payments, and more, and they will definitely add a lot of uncertainty into the mix. Add that to the pressure of tariffs and mass deportations, and many economists predict major economic upheaval in our area, particularly in the housing market. 

Already in D.C. more than 7,000 workers have filed for unemployment insurance in recent weeks. Many of the skillsets that unemployed Federal workers have do not coincide with job openings in the area—jobs such as nursing, culinary work, and hospitality services. Both Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Virginia Governor Youngkin are encouraging fired federal workers to apply for State jobs.

I haven’t even begun to unpack the effect that cancelled government contracts have on consulting firms and other public and private companies in the area.

There are many ways to create a more efficient, streamlined federal workforce. Encouraging creative, innovative solutions and actually implementing recommendations that many of the now-fired inspectors general suggested in their reports when identifying waste are just a few ideas. 

A thoughtful studied approach is the opposite of what has transpired in the last five weeks. Instead, according to Sunday’s New York Times, the approach used to fire employees arose from a $50,000 a plate fundraising dinner for Vivek Ramaswamy when he was running for president which Elon Musk attended. While there, Musk spoke about his frustration with federal regulators who were stifling progress on his pet projects with Space X and Tesla. Hence the brainchild of breaking into the federal digital servers.

All this upheaval, why? So that Trump can raise the debt ceiling and give tax cuts to the uber wealthy. 

So, how do you mend a broken heart? How do you stop the rain from falling down? It will be up to the Courts to decide how much power the President has. And it will be up to the Courts to ensure that its decisions are enforced. And then there is the “pie-in-the-sky” hope that Congress will eventually do its job. Stay tuned.

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, music, and nature.