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BumRushDaShow

(137,636 posts)
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:09 PM Sep 2

Federal workers around D.C. worry over Trump's plans to send some of them elsewhere

Source: ABC News/AP

September 2, 2024, 12:12 AM


WASHINGTON -- Worries of being uprooted from their jobs have returned for Laura Dodson and other federal workers, who have long been the economic backbone of the nation's capital and its suburbs.

During former President Donald Trump 's administration, her office under the U.S. Department of Agriculture was told it would be moving. About 75 people were going to be relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, Dodson said, but less than 40 actually moved. A rushed process that failed to consider the need to find homes, jobs for spouses and schools for children prompted some retirements, she said, and some took other federal jobs, hurting the agency in the end.

Now, with Trump proposing the relocation of up to 100,000 federal jobs from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia under his Agenda 47 plan, concerns about being abruptly moved are again troubling federal workers. The Republican's proposals stir anxiety in the midst of an unusually competitive U.S. Senate race in heavily Democratic Maryland that could determine control of the Senate, with even the Republican candidate calling the plans “crazy.” The proposals also could hinder Trump's chances to win Virginia, a state he lost in 2016 and 2020, where a U.S. Senate seat widely seen as safely Democratic is also on the ballot.

“It’s causing a lot of anxiety, a lot of discomfort within the workforce, as you are faced with these strong, negative, anti-federal worker stances and this uncertainty of what might happen to your job, your home and your livelihood," said Dodson, who is acting vice president of American Federation of Government Employees local 3403, which represents the USDA's Economic Research Service.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/federal-workers-nations-capital-worry-trumps-plans-send-113318026

19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Turbineguy

(38,077 posts)
1. The Soviet model.
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:14 PM
Sep 2

Incompetent political hack commissars in charge of important government functions.

You know, like Chernobyl.

not fooled

(5,980 posts)
3. I used to know some Federal workers
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:16 PM
Sep 2

--including USDA employees with great jobs and benefits--who were enthusiastic supporters of and voters for red don in 2016. Wonder what they're thinking now?

Idiots.

tom_kelly

(1,027 posts)
6. Unfortunately, they're most likely still not thinking
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:25 PM
Sep 2

Too many R's are insulated in the Fox bubble. And, very little permeates.

not fooled

(5,980 posts)
13. Oh, yeah. When they do think, it's
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 02:10 PM
Sep 2

"Oh, [insert horrific outcome] won't happen to ME. I'm a GOOD Fed. It'll only happen to those lazy, incompetent co-workers of mine whom I can't stand."

That's almost word-for-word what one USDA employee and red don supporter told me back around 2016.

BumRushDaShow

(137,636 posts)
15. I worked with 3 like that
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 02:22 PM
Sep 2

one who just retired this past year and 2 others who were older and have since passed, where one of them was an avid Limpballs listener.

There seemed to be a complete disconnect between where they worked and their understanding how the people they supported, really didn't want their jobs to exist at all.

I know that 2 of them had some serious personal family problems so it was almost like it became an "escape" for them - a "world" where others were ranting and raving in the manner that they could relate to due to the issues in their own lives. I.e., the modern GOP evolved into a "grievance factory".

I also interact with one on my weather forum.

What actually happens is that when it comes to non-political stuff, they are as helpful and chatty as can be but with politics, it's like a Jekyll/Hyde thing.

Blue Owl

(53,720 posts)
4. Anyone who's not a millionaire or billionaire needs to worry about tRump being elected
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:19 PM
Sep 2

The 99% are invisible to him and his plans

 

Zoomie1986

(1,213 posts)
18. The problem is that the impoverished saps
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 04:25 PM
Sep 2

Who vote for him don't think that they're poor, but temporarily embarrassed millionaires themselves. They are so very stupid that they still think, after 40+ years of failed reaganomics, that voting for the traitors will eventually make them rich. Preferably by stealing from women and brown people and giving that loot to them.

mtngirl47

(1,043 posts)
5. Another case of folks voting against their own best interests!
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:23 PM
Sep 2

Republicans have been demonizing Federal Workers since Reagan fired PATCO workers for striking.

My family members that are/were Federal Civil Servants all said---"oh they don't mean me...." But look what happened during the Newt Gingrich years when Civil Servants were replaced by contractors.

Now, both Project 2025 and Agenda 47 vow to eliminate whole departments and move jobs away from Washington.

I hope that the 2.87 Million Federal Employees will think critically and vote Democratic!

 

Zoomie1986

(1,213 posts)
19. But they're not voting against their interests
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 04:29 PM
Sep 2

The problem is that their interests aren't the same interests you or I have.

Their interests are keeping white christian males at the top of the pyramid, and forcing women and minorities into servitude. Or, even better, making the brown people and uppity women go away, one way or another.

Nothing matters more to them than their unearned privilege as white Christian males.

No exceptions.

Karma13612

(4,640 posts)
9. I'm certainly concerned
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:37 PM
Sep 2

For all the Federal employees.

Everywhere in the country. Such an upheaval to all their lives as well as those of their families would be terrible.
But, zeroing in on the ones in the DC area, I thought they tended to vote blue. So, hopefully they can help blunt some of the ones voting against their own best interests.

GopherGal

(2,234 posts)
10. Having a businessman running the government...
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 12:46 PM
Sep 2

should, in theory, allow government to learn from what companies have learned about major relocations. And, near as I can tell from my own career, a major consideration companies take into account when reorgs require a lot of relocations is how much unwanted attrition they're going to incur. My company put in place a big retention program to help relocated employees with changes to housing and schools and jobs for spouses. Of course, for the Puke crowd, attrition among experienced government employees may be a feature rather than a bug.

And in addition, the lesson to be learned from corporate America would apply only if the "businessman" you have running the government is a *competent* businessman, not a multiply bankrupted personality-disordered nepo baby with a knack for running companies into the ground.

FakeNoose

(34,704 posts)
14. Yes indeed, competence excludes Chump from everything in government work
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 02:14 PM
Sep 2

... or should I say LACK OF competence?

Chump should never be allowed back in the White House again.

COL Mustard

(6,607 posts)
16. I'm lucky. I'm eligible for immediate retirement.
Mon Sep 2, 2024, 03:39 PM
Sep 2

I have over 33 years service, so if I need to go I can go immediately. Others, not so fast. I only hope we don't go down that path again. Schedule F would totally F up the workforce.

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