Federal workers around nation’s capital worry over Trump’s plans to send some of them elsewhere

The Associated Press
September 2, 2024, 12:12 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

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The District of Columbia has the largest number of federal civilian employees, with about 160,700 jobs, according to the Congressional Research Service. Maryland and Virginia are in the top four jurisdictions, with about 138,940 in Maryland and 140,400 in Virginia. California has about 142,040.

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Witte reported from Annapolis and Suitland, Maryland.

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