On Tuesday, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) held a press conference to advocate for the protection of the Federal Workforce.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Maryland here, we're going to go over here.
00:02We're going to do a social distance labor walk today.
00:05Hey.
00:05OK.
00:06It's just a little hug.
00:07It's a pleasure to see you.
00:08OK.
00:09Please stay.
00:10OK.
00:11I love you.
00:12Madeline.
00:12I'm sorry.
00:15Is that working?
00:16Do you have that?
00:17Great.
00:18Sorry for all the stuff.
00:19Say hi to my little lady.
00:21Oh, great.
00:22That's unbelievable.
00:24We're still in the community.
00:25That's right.
00:26That's right.
00:27All right.
00:28You ready?
00:28Yeah.
00:29OK.
00:30Anywhere?
00:30And then everybody, the order's always going to be up here.
00:33OK.
00:33OK.
00:36Good morning.
00:37Can you all hear me OK?
00:43You're good.
00:44You're going to introduce Nicole.
00:47I didn't have her on the mic.
00:49That's OK.
00:53And who, where's Nicole from?
00:56Nicole is from CFPB.
01:01CFPB.
01:11OK.
01:12Good morning, everyone.
01:13Thank you all for joining us.
01:14My name is Sarah Elfrith.
01:15I have the privilege of representing District 3,
01:18Congressional District 3 in Maryland.
01:20And I want to start by extending a special thank you
01:23to the brave and hardworking civil servants
01:25whom I am so proud to be standing with this morning
01:28and proud to represent every single day.
01:31I'm grateful for their stories.
01:32I'm grateful for their fight.
01:34And I'm grateful for their advocacy
01:37that they're going to share here today.
01:39And I want you to hear from them directly,
01:41to hear their stories.
01:42So I'm going to endeavor to be as brief as possible.
01:45I have the privilege of representing 44,000 federal
01:48employees in my district.
01:49And I'm joined by colleagues, Congressman Steny Hoyer,
01:52Congressman Johnny Oshesky, who also represent
01:54tens of thousands of federal employees.
01:56These civil servants wake up every single day
01:59and work every day to keep our food inspected,
02:02to keep our water clean, to keep our Social Security
02:04checks coming on time.
02:06But since day one, unfortunately,
02:08this administration has sought to recklessly remove
02:11civil servants from their jobs, and thus putting
02:13life-saving services in the hands of political appointments,
02:17or even worse, those services in the hands of no one at all.
02:21The firing, particularly of probationary employees,
02:25especially impacts workers of my generation,
02:28people who are early or mid-career,
02:31the folks I'm standing with today,
02:33like Daniel, Ashley, and Maddie.
02:35They were on a path to be the next generation
02:37of leaders in our civil service.
02:39They were hardworking public servants
02:41with excellent performance reviews,
02:43who were fired because of no fault of their own,
02:46but only because as probationary employees,
02:49one with only one day left in his probationary status,
02:52they had fewer protections than other federal workers.
02:55And let me be clear, they were not given two weeks' notice.
02:58They were not given a severance.
03:00They were cut off from their emails,
03:02and from their careers, and from their livelihoods
03:04when they have children in school,
03:06and mortgages to pay, and parents to take care of.
03:09So we need to take steps as a Congress to protect them
03:12and the thousands of employees like them
03:14from the reckless chaos of this moment,
03:17because the future of the civil service is truly in jeopardy.
03:20I ask you, who will want to serve their country
03:23if they are demonized every day?
03:25Who will want to serve their country
03:27if they can be arbitrarily fired without cause?
03:30Who will want to serve their country
03:32if their job is in question every four years?
03:35At a time when government already faces challenges
03:38recruiting young talent,
03:40recruiting the best and the brightest in cybersecurity,
03:42in science, in public health,
03:44and when public service salaries
03:46consistently fall behind the private sector,
03:49arbitrarily firing thousands of federal workers
03:52is nothing short of disastrous.
03:54And our generations could be living with the consequences
03:57of these actions for decades to come.
03:59Let me be clear that you're going to hear today
04:01how demoralizing, illegal, and unimaginable
04:04these firings have been for hard-working civil servants.
04:07And we must fight with every tool we have
04:09to reinstate these workers,
04:11and we are fighting, and we are winning.
04:13Just last week, the Department of Labor
04:15rehired workers, USDA rehired workers,
04:18FDA rehired workers.
04:20Doge and Elon Musk have already admitted
04:22that in moving so quickly, mistakes were made
04:25and workers are being reinstated.
04:27The reason we are here today and the very simple idea
04:30behind this bipartisan bill
04:32is that these workers should not have to restart the clock
04:35on their probationary periods
04:37for the work and jobs they've already held
04:39because of this carelessness.
04:41And that's why today we are introducing
04:43the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act
04:45to do just that.
04:46We have 41 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House.
04:49The bill was also introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen,
04:51who will be joined by in a second in the Senate.
04:54This is, again, a bipartisan, common-sense piece of legislation
04:58because protecting our federal employees
05:00who serve our communities and this nation
05:02should not be partisan.
05:04This is not, I want to make clear,
05:06not just a challenge for the members of the House and Senate
05:09who represent the DMV region.
05:11It's often told as that story,
05:13but let me be clear that 85% of civil servants in this country
05:17serve our country in communities outside of the DMV.
05:21They live in red states, they live in blue states,
05:23and above all, they deliver critical government services
05:26to all Americans, regardless of the party in power
05:30or who they voted for.
05:32I'm committed to fighting for them
05:33and the future of our civil service every single day.
05:36And I want every civil servant to know that we see you,
05:39we hear you, and we are with you every step of the way forward.
05:43And with that, I'm going to bring up
05:44one of those people impacted today, Daniel.
05:47Daniel.
05:52First, I want to thank Congresswoman Elfrith
05:55for her work on this important bill
05:57and for having me today.
05:58It's an honor.
05:59My name's Dan, and until recently,
06:02I was a historic preservation specialist
06:05with the General Services Administration.
06:07Over the last year in this role,
06:09I've gotten to be a steward of monumental, historic buildings
06:13just a stone's throw away from the National Mall.
06:16The responsibility has been humbling and rewarding.
06:19Every day, I seriously felt like
06:21I'd been called up to the big leagues.
06:23You see, for many years, I've been fascinated
06:25by the GSA's stewardship role of our historic public buildings
06:29after learning about the agency in graduate school.
06:32Ten years and many job applications later,
06:35I was finally hired on last February
06:37and was ecstatic to begin what I considered
06:40the capstone of my early career.
06:42I thought I would spend many years here.
06:47My wife, Jen, and I sacrificed much
06:49to make this dream a reality,
06:51including an amazing community where we lived in California
06:55and stable and expanding careers in state and local government,
06:58ones where we were truly valued.
07:01We also moved our whole lives 2,700 miles
07:05while Jen was pregnant,
07:07spending several thousand dollars out of our own pockets.
07:11Up until recently, it was all well worth it.
07:14I did meaningful work with incredible colleagues.
07:17I was learning a lot.
07:18Jen and I settled into our lives here
07:20and quickly took to loving everything that D.C. has to offer.
07:24Our first child, baby Sal, was born in September,
07:27and we also became first-time homeowners
07:29in the region in December.
07:31Today, I'm scared.
07:32I'm scared for what the next few months look like.
07:35I'm scared for those that depend on me and my salary.
07:38I'm scared to lose the home we haven't even finished unpacking yet.
07:43I'm also sad for us all, though,
07:45because my work matters and these people's work matters.
07:48Without folks like me, there'd be no one to ensure
07:50our nation's most important historic buildings and sites
07:53are protected from ill-conceived government actions
07:56that carelessly degrade and inevitably erase them.
08:01I'm scared and I'm dejected, but I promise you this,
08:04I'm also strong and defiant.
08:06Today, I know we're so much stronger together.
08:09Thank you so much.
08:15Next is Ashley and Maddie.
08:21Hey, everybody.
08:22How are you guys today?
08:23You guys doing good?
08:25Normally, I am, if you can tell, as I'm an interpreter,
08:29and so I like to talk to people, and so it feels weird for me
08:32just to sort of statically stand here.
08:34I want to talk to you all.
08:36So my name is Ashley Rinali, and this is my colleague, Maddie Hollis.
08:40Both Maddie and I were among the 1,000 National Park Service
08:45probationary employees fired unjustly on February 14th.
08:51Formerly, I was a school teacher, a park ranger.
08:55I was a school teacher for 15 years, a park ranger,
08:58two jobs for five of those years.
09:01I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, and I'm also a cancer survivor,
09:05and now I don't have health insurance.
09:08Maddie and I were not lazy bureaucrats who loafed around all day.
09:14We loved our jobs and we took pride in our work.
09:17We loved being park rangers.
09:20Maddie's really special to me, as she and I were both
09:23National Park interns in 2020.
09:26We both fought for five years, five years to chase our dreams
09:31and land permanent jobs, only to have our careers taken
09:36simply for being on probation.
09:39We are able to speak to you today solely because of the support
09:43of our friends and family.
09:45My partner, Ryan Braun, is sitting back there,
09:48back Hollis, Maddie's partner is back there with us.
09:51Our partners have done so much to support our efforts in advocacy.
09:56Our friends, our fired colleagues, Helen Dew, Avery Lentz,
10:00and our families have carried us on their backs financially
10:04and emotionally while we desperately searched for someone to help us.
10:09With that support from our families, we were able to continue
10:13this fight and find allies like Senator Warner,
10:16and finally Congresswoman Elfrith.
10:19On that note, ladies and gentlemen, my colleague and friend
10:22and dedicated former public servant, Maddie Hollis.
10:28Good morning, everyone.
10:29Thank you so much for having us.
10:31I am one of many of the federal employees who were terminated
10:34simply because we were still within our first year
10:37of our permanent positions.
10:39But as Ashley stated, we were not new to the National Park Service.
10:42I worked as a paid National Park Service employee for three years,
10:47not counting my volunteer work, my internships to qualify
10:50for my permanent position.
10:52And I was terminated on Valentine's Day.
10:55And so I am here today mostly to talk about the now what.
10:58We were fired very suddenly.
11:00There's talk of potentially reinstating probationary employees
11:03who were fired outside of normal reduction in force procedures.
11:07But now what?
11:09That's the thing to talk about today is what kind of safeguards
11:11are needed going forward for probationary employees
11:15and what can we do to eliminate the barriers to our careers?
11:19Because truly this would not just have short-term consequences,
11:22the obvious being loss of income, loss of health insurance,
11:26but also long-term consequences on our career.
11:30For example, if we are not reinstated and we cannot find government jobs
11:34for the next two years, in many instances that would count
11:37as a break in service and we would have to start from scratch
11:40in terms of the time that we both put in to qualify for our positions.
11:45And so there's many things to discuss today to talk about
11:48what can be done going forward.
11:50And so we're not just here to share our stories and talk about
11:53what happened to us, but also to talk about solutions
11:57and talk about those safeguards that we need to protect people
12:00like Ashley and myself.
12:03As a former park ranger and a huge history buff,
12:06I feel that it would not be fair to close without sharing
12:09at least one quote from a historical figure.
12:12It's what I love. It's in my nature.
12:15So this comes from George Washington writing to the Marquis de Lafayette in 1785.
12:20And he said,
12:21Democratical states must always feel before they can see.
12:26It is this that makes their government slow,
12:29but the people will be right at last.
12:32And so what is George Washington telling us here?
12:34He's telling us that democracy, while frustrating at times,
12:38is supposed to be slow because that allows decisions to be fully discussed
12:43and thought out before they happen.
12:45And I fear that the way that we were terminated so suddenly
12:48meant that not all of the consequences could be thought out
12:51and a plan made for people like us going forward.
12:54And so that's why we're here today.
12:56We hope that this conversation that we have with representatives later
12:59about these solutions can protect people going forward.
13:02If not for everyone standing behind me today,
13:05maybe for someone in the future.
13:07So thank you so much, and thank you, Congressman Elfris.
13:11And then next up is Senator Chris Van Holen.
13:14He's running late, so we're going to have Congressman Holen.
13:16All right.
13:22Ashley and Maddie, thank you very, very much.
13:27They are two perfect examples of extraordinary employees of the American people.
13:36No malingerers there.
13:40Now, I want to put this in context.
13:44If I wanted to make the federal government the least efficient I could possibly make it,
13:51I would do exactly what Musk has done.
13:57Exactly.
13:59I would make sure that every employee focused on the fact that they might lose their job
14:05as opposed to focusing on their job, fearful of the next day.
14:12Now, I don't just suppose that.
14:15I know that.
14:17Let me quote Russell Vogt, who really designed much of what is going on
14:24and being implemented by Elon Musk and his cohorts.
14:30Here's what Vogt said.
14:32We want bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.
14:37When they wake up in the morning, we want them not to want to go to work
14:44because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.
14:50We want to put them in trauma.
14:55Is there an American who thinks that that's what they want to do with their employees,
15:02with the people who serve them every day, put them in trauma,
15:05have them believe that they are being looked at as villains?
15:09Not one of these people here is a villain.
15:15Every one of these people here, including the members of Congress, are serving the American people.
15:23So I want to congratulate my colleague, Sarah Elfrith, for introducing this bill, this bipartisan bill.
15:33I want to thank every one of the folks who are here, Ashley, Daniel, Maddie, Nicole, Anthony, Jay, Madeline, for being here.
15:41If I left somebody out, I apologize.
15:45In the last few weeks, we have watched Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Russell Vogt, and Doggie.
15:55I know some people call it Doge.
15:58That's too fancy a name for what's going on.
16:02Try to make the federal government the least efficient it could be
16:07so that they can claim, oh, the government doesn't work
16:14because that's what they're causing.
16:17Their actions are unprecedented, illegal, and cruel.
16:24Our federal workers, especially our probationary employees, have borne the brunt of this assault.
16:30Ladies and gentlemen, other than the, like me, mid-career people, the members of Congress,
16:38I'm a lot older than any of them, you're seeing the seed corn.
16:43What is seed corn?
16:45Seed corn is that which you plant which will make sure you have more growth, more sustenance, more support.
16:55I want to talk about Julie, a Marylander, a probationary employee at the Treasury Department.
17:02She supports the Office of Comptroller of the Currencies,
17:06work to protect consumers from discriminatory lending, fraud, money laundering,
17:12and other predatory financial practices.
17:16Now, there's somebody who's senior to her who's doing that right now,
17:21and they were trained and had an opportunity to work.
17:25And one of these folks maybe will succeed her or somebody else.
17:30But if we fire them, if we put them out of training,
17:35particularly when, as you saw, they are outstanding performers,
17:41then we will have nobody to replace them.
17:44Julie left her longtime home in Atlanta, as well as her family and her friends,
17:48to take the job at Treasury.
17:50Why?
17:51Because she believes in the work and because she knows she is the most qualified person for that job,
17:57and that's why they hired her.
17:59Her stellar performance evaluations, outstanding, outstanding, outstanding, affirmed that.
18:06Her probationary period was set to end March 24th.
18:13She was terminated on March 8th.
18:19Cruel, inhuman, immoral, but mostly illegal.
18:26The saddest part of Julie's story is that it's not unique.
18:30Trump, Musk, and Vote do not care who or what they do.
18:36They did this so quickly that they knew everything about how they would do it
18:40with their e-mails and their social media.
18:43What they didn't have any idea was the consequences of their actions,
18:49which we have seen have put people's lives at risk, put basic biomedical research at risk,
18:55put nursing skills at risk, put veterans at risk, put families at risk, put jurisdictions at risk.
19:04But we know that the real villains are not those who are being fired,
19:11not those who serve others, but those who serve only themselves.
19:18That's why I am so proud to support and fight for the bill that Sarah Elferth has put on as a bipartisan bill.
19:28And I would reiterate, 15 percent of federal employees live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia area.
19:36Eighty-five percent live every place else.
19:42I want to now introduce Nicole, who was laid off or fired from the Consumer Financial Protection Board,
19:51a board that is designed to make sure that Americans are not bilked and defrauded
19:59by those who would use their lack of knowledge as a vulnerability and take advantage of them.
20:09Nicole, thank you.
20:15Hello, everybody.
20:17My name is Nicole Cavanius.
20:19I was fired on February 11, 2025, from my dream job as an honors attorney in the Enforcement Division at the CFPB.
20:27In my job, I investigated financial institutions for violating consumer financial laws
20:33with the sole goal of pursuing consumer redress,
20:36getting people's money back when they've been taken advantage of, when they've been defrauded,
20:40and when they've been misled by our marketplace.
20:43Both of my parents are Republicans.
20:46I'm from Miami, Florida, and I believe in the market economy.
20:50And I learned in law school that sometimes the way that our market economy works
20:55doesn't give consumers the power to vote with their money.
20:58I believe that that was a big part of why some areas of our marketplace took advantage of other people,
21:04because they weren't responsible or accountable to the American public.
21:08And so I pursued my job with the goal of trying to make a difference, trying to rectify those incentives.
21:15I was fired from my probationary period, which simply meant that I was new to my job.
21:20In fact, I started on October 7, 2024.
21:24I started a month before the election, green and eager to do my job.
21:28I worked long hours.
21:30I worked through the Christmas holiday.
21:32It was an honor of a lifetime to do this job.
21:34In fact, from the time I was in law school, I knew that I wanted this job.
21:39I was green, but I wasn't naive.
21:42I knew that I was joining a month before the election,
21:44and I knew that a big part of being a civil servant was to serve regardless of who was in charge
21:50and to show whoever was in charge that I was willing to work in good faith to try to find common ground
21:57and to try to reach outcomes that worked for everybody.
22:01I wanted the market economy to work, and that was my motivation.
22:05When I saw and realized that the Trump administration was going to come in,
22:11I knew that that outcome would mean that I'd probably have to work even harder.
22:15I would have to show them that my cases were worth bringing.
22:18I would have to show them that I did my homework and that I was willing to work hard,
22:22and I was willing to work long hours for the American public.
22:25I was never really given that chance, though.
22:27I was fired at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday over email with no notice or warning or severance
22:33or any opportunity to show that I was willing to work with whoever was in charge to make a difference.
22:39The American public deserve a whole lot better.
22:42They deserve to have green, eager, efficient, smart people working in their government,
22:48and I deserved a whole lot better, too.
22:53And now we're going to have the Senate sponsor of the bill, Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland.
23:02I want to start, as my colleagues have, by thanking these patriotic, hardworking federal employees
23:11for all the good work you were doing on behalf of our country until you were illegally fired.
23:20And all of us are here to say we are going to help you get your jobs back,
23:26and when you do, you will be able to get credit for the good work and time you've already served
23:32on behalf of the American people.
23:34And I want to thank Congresswoman Sarah Elfrith.
23:37She's hit the ground running here in the House of Representatives.
23:41She and Congressman Hoyer and, of course, Johnny Osheski are really great parts of Team Maryland.
23:47We're glad to be joined by other members of Congress from around the country,
23:51including making this a bipartisan bill.
23:54So thank you to Congresswoman Elfrith for all of her good work here.
23:59This is a common-sense piece of legislation.
24:03Elon Musk has been illegally firing federal employees,
24:08and when we get them restored to their jobs,
24:12Elon Musk doesn't get to reset the clock and erase the good work that they've already done
24:17on behalf of the American people and the time that they put into that effort.
24:22So this is a very important step as part of our overall effort to end these illegal firings.
24:32And as I think we all know, the courts are very busy now.
24:37Administrative agencies are very busy now.
24:40And the courts that have reviewed these cases have found that these probationary employees have been wrongfully terminated.
24:48This is not about making the government more efficient.
24:51All of us are in support of making the government more efficient.
24:55This is about making the government work for people like Elon Musk
25:00and rigging the government for powerful interests at the expense of everybody else in America.
25:06And Nicole's story at the CFPB is instructive because at the CFPB,
25:10in addition to those who were probationary employees who were terminated,
25:16you also had everybody else at the CFPB who were not probationary employees sent home on administrative leave.
25:23So these are people who, like Nicole, were working to recover monies on behalf of Americans,
25:31including many Marylanders, who'd been cheated and defrauded by certain entities.
25:38And their job was to get those funds back.
25:42And, in fact, over the years, over a billion dollars in monies that were lost to the American people through fraud and cheating
25:49were given back to the American people because of the good work of CFPB.
25:53And that's just one example.
25:55So why would you want to shut down the CFPB?
25:59It's because in helping American consumers, they also had some very powerful enemies.
26:06So this has nothing to do with government efficiency.
26:09The final thing I want to point out, and I think you all know this,
26:13is the firing of probationary employees was based on the big lie, a very big lie, and a hurtful lie.
26:20Because, as you all know, I think the country recognizes,
26:24when you're a probationary employee, that has nothing to do with your performance.
26:30It's not because you've done anything wrong.
26:33It's because you've been newly hired to the federal government,
26:36or, in many cases, you can have worked for the federal government for a very, very long time,
26:40but be new to your position.
26:42In other words, you could be promoted, based on merit, to a new position in the federal government.
26:47You're probationary in that position for a certain period of time.
26:51But the Musk folks recognize that federal employees do have due process rights,
26:58and you cannot be terminated except for misconduct or poor performance.
27:04And so they made up the big lie.
27:06A lot of these federal employees got these letters saying that they were being fired for poor performance,
27:11only to discover all these federal employees coming forward with glowing recent performance reports
27:18because of the good work they were doing on behalf of the American people.
27:22So I think the country is waking up to the fact that Elon Musk is lying to them about what he's doing.
27:29People are waking up to the fact that this is not about government efficiency.
27:33This is, indeed, about rigging the government for people like Elon Musk.
27:37And it is time for all of us to make sure that we back these patriotic federal employees
27:44who wrongfully lost their jobs.
27:46That's what this bill is about.
27:48It's making sure that when we accomplish that goal, we provide that fairness to say,
27:54you've already done this work on behalf of the American people,
27:57and you get full credit for that good work that you've already done.
28:00So let me, again, thank Sarah Elfrith, my colleagues.
28:04I'm introducing this on the Senate side today with Senator Mark Warner.
28:09And to all our federal employees, again, thank you for all that you do.
28:13Thank you, Sarah.
28:15Next we're going to hear from Anthony, and then I'm going to call up my colleague,
28:19Congressman Dina Titus.
28:24Hello, everyone.
28:25My name is Anthony Johnson II, a former physical science technician
28:29with the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office in Annapolis, Maryland.
28:33I was raised in Maryland, where my dreams of becoming a marine biologist at a young age began.
28:39The Chesapeake Bay watershed was a foundational resource that made me love nature,
28:43raised my curiosity not only to pursue this field as a career, but to protect it.
28:48I became a federal employee last fall, on August 26th, after completing a year-long internship
28:54with the NOAA Office as a Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps member.
29:01The office was a special landing spot for me,
29:04starting a full-time position after receiving my master's from the University of Miami.
29:09The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office was a place I saw myself working in for years.
29:13NOAA is known for its efforts in restoring and conserving the Chesapeake Bay resources
29:18to a healthy state for future generations.
29:21My job at NOAA was to maintain the scientific buoys located across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
29:27The buoys provided continuous, real-time water quality data,
29:31not only for helping other organizations with their desired projects,
29:35but was useful to boaters in safely navigating the changing water conditions.
29:40For example, our data from our buoys was used in rescue and recovery efforts
29:45for the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster.
29:48On February 27th, I received an email stating I was terminated from NOAA.
29:54The email read, I was not fit for the job because my ability, knowledge,
29:59and or skills do not fit the agency's current needs.
30:02I was successfully completed eight internships over the years,
30:05with each opportunity teaching me the crucial reasons why marine ecosystems are important.
30:11The lack of knowledge or skills that was claimed to not have was false and offensive.
30:16My termination and others from our positions at NOAA may result in drastic consequences
30:21to our ecosystem and livelihood.
30:24The shortage of federal workers to manage our sustainable fisheries,
30:28climate resiliency, and environmental literacy work may impact our environment and economy.
30:35Only time will tell of the true consequences terminating federal workers has on a broader scale.
30:42I would like to bring up Congresswoman Dina T. Titus.
30:50Well, thank you very much for being here, and thank you to our Congresswoman Elfrid
30:55for taking the leadership on this important issue, Leader Hoyer, Senator,
31:00and the other people who are sponsoring this bill.
31:03I want to especially thank these brave public employees, though,
31:07because they can tell this story much more eloquently than I can.
31:11They are living it every day.
31:13They are on the front lines, and they are the ones who are suffering directly
31:17the consequences of this rash action.
31:20Now, you've seen a lot of representatives here from Maryland
31:23because so many public employees live in the Washington area.
31:27But I'm here to tell you they live all across the country in every district.
31:32I represent Nevada's 1st District, Southern Nevada,
31:35and we have seen the firing of these temporary employees, or probational employees, rather.
31:42At Lake Mead, for example, some of our park rangers have been let go.
31:47Now, Lake Mead is a source of great recreational tourism.
31:51A lot of revenue comes from Lake Mead, a lot of just personal fun
31:55from people who live in Southern Nevada going to Lake Mead.
31:58Without those park rangers, it will not be maintained.
32:01It will not be as safe.
32:03It will not be cleaned.
32:05It just will not be the same.
32:07Another aspect of this firing that directly impacts my district is Social Security.
32:13They've closed the Social Security office and fired some of the temporary employees there.
32:18We have a very large senior population in Southern Nevada,
32:21lots of retirees who need those services who now will not find them.
32:26So it's not only illegal, it's shameful,
32:29and it's not just a disservice to the people in these jobs
32:33but to all Americans who rely on them to provide services that they need.
32:38So thank you for being here, and I'm pleased to cosponsor this bipartisan bill.
32:44It's an important first step to show our support for these folks
32:49and to be sure that perhaps if we can turn this around,
32:52which we will by working together, that we can make a difference.
33:00Okay, we're going to hear from one more impacted employee,
33:03and then I'm going to ask my colleague, Congressman Oshefsky, to help us close.
33:08Madeline is next.
33:14Thank you, not only for this bill, but for giving us the opportunity to tell our stories.
33:19On February 14th, I was unjustly terminated from my dream job
33:23as a visual information specialist with the National Park Service.
33:27Of not only the thousand other rangers that were terminated across the service,
33:31but five other rangers just in the Baltimore area parks that I worked with
33:35had our positions ripped away from us without just cause.
33:39The email we received claimed that we had failed to demonstrate fitness
33:42or qualifications for continued employment,
33:45but the decision makers who were not our supervisors or people that even worked with us
33:49knew nothing of the education, experience, training, skills, and talents
33:53that I and my colleagues dedicated years cultivating
33:56in order to qualify for one of these positions.
33:59I received an outstanding rating in what would be my only performance evaluation
34:03with the National Park Service,
34:06but this was on par with every prior evaluation I received
34:09during my tenure as a civilian employee with the Department of the Navy.
34:13Although I was only 10 months into my year-long probationary period with the Park Service,
34:17I have over six years of experience as a federal civil servant.
34:21Unfortunately, my performance rating and my previous service did not seem to matter.
34:26I went through the stages of grief as I realized my entire professional trajectory
34:30had been altered in the time it took to read an email.
34:33My very first thought was not for my paycheck,
34:35but for the devastation I felt over losing a job that meant so much to me.
34:39My passion for the National Park Service and its mission remain unwavering,
34:43and I'm heartbroken to know that the work that I dedicated to and for my parks
34:48has come to an abrupt end.
34:51I grieve this loss and continue to do so.
34:53But when the reality of my situation set back in and the practical issues began to surface,
34:57I panicked at the thought of losing my livelihood.
35:00While I may not be a mother or a veteran,
35:02although I have met parents and vets impacted by this action,
35:05I faced my own challenges.
35:08When I learned that I had 30 days until my health insurance would be cut off,
35:11I was crushed to realize that a surgery that would greatly improve the quality of my life
35:15fell outside that window.
35:18I called my doctor, and I'm grateful to say that I stand here exactly one week post-op
35:23telling you my story.
35:25Excuse me.
35:27I wish I could have focused on my recovery without the constant worry
35:30of my recent unemployment lingering in the back of my mind.
35:33As I worked on standing without pain and managing daily tasks independently,
35:37the same questions replayed in my mind.
35:40What will I do for work now?
35:42When will I be healthy enough to search for a job?
35:45Will there even be a position available for me in this newly oversaturated job market?
35:50And mostly, how does one cope with losing their dream job so suddenly and move forward?
35:55But these considerations aren't made, or one that I even have the possibility to think about,
36:00when you're told that your termination is effective immediately.
36:04There are those that hesitate to label mine and other terminations as illegal
36:08because they're not experts in the law.
36:10So I propose alternatives.
36:12Unfair, cruel, and inhumane in the truest sense,
36:15as we were not treated as individuals with lives.
36:18We were reduced to names on a list and numbers on a spreadsheet.
36:22But I'm here to remind everyone that I am a real person.
36:25We are real people.
36:27And who I am and the work that I did was not a waste.
36:32And I will hand it off to Congressman Olszewski.
36:40I first just want to thank Madeline for her courage and the courage of so many others
36:44for stepping forward and sharing their stories.
36:47Unfortunately, there are thousands and thousands of them happening across this country today.
36:54So I am honored to stand alongside Madeline and the employees here today,
37:01just as we stand alongside the employees across this country
37:04who have been impacted by these heartless, thoughtless, and dangerous actions
37:10by President Trump, Elon Musk, and Doge.
37:13I do want to thank my colleague and friend, Congresswoman Elfrith,
37:18for leading on this effort alongside Senator Van Hollen.
37:21I'm pleased to stand with both the two of them,
37:24as well as Representatives Hoyer and Titus and others.
37:28I thank those who are joining this in a bipartisan manner
37:31because what's happening is wrong.
37:35And it's wrong not just for the impact that it's having on people who are doing not just a job.
37:42As you've heard, they're living out a calling.
37:44This is a calling.
37:47This is serving their fellow American in a way that is deeply personal
37:52and that is deeply impactful.
37:55And so not only is there incredible devastation in the short term
37:58in terms of these individuals and their families,
38:01but there's a lot of dangerous—
38:04there's a real danger to what's happening across this country.
38:08At a time when we're seeing planes fall out of the sky,
38:11we see our flight attendants and we see our air traffic controllers under attack.
38:16At a time when we see the rise of bird flu, we are taking away safety inspectors.
38:21At a time when our history is under attack,
38:24we see employees losing opportunities to interpret that for future generations.
38:29And so this is an important first step,
38:32that when these illegal and immoral firings are overturned,
38:36that these individuals don't lose their time.
38:40But it's not the only step.
38:42We have a lot more to do,
38:44and part of it is lifting up the voices that you've heard today.
38:47I was proud on the Joint Address to bring another probationary employee,
38:51Katie Stahl, to be one of those voices.
38:54She was also let go for doing nothing wrong.
38:57In fact, Katie, who worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife,
39:00who worked with Maryland Farmers,
39:02was let go as a probationary employee who was just promoted
39:05for doing such an outstanding job.
39:08She was hired under President Trump's first administration
39:11and subsequently let go in this thoughtless, heartless action
39:16against all probationary employees.
39:18And so we look forward to passing this legislation.
39:21We look forward to doing all that we can
39:23to get these and other probationary employees reinstated
39:26so that they can pursue their calling,
39:28so that they can be partially restored to what's been taken from them,
39:31and that our country can be partially restored as we move forward together.
39:35I'll turn things back over to Congresswoman Alfred.
39:38Thanks.
39:41I will close again with just a sincere gratitude
39:44for all those who stand behind me,
39:46and more importantly, all of their colleagues
39:49across the federal government that they represent.
39:51Thank you for sharing your stories.
39:53Thank you for humanizing this moment.
39:56I think in politics we tend to talk, as was just said,
39:59about numbers on a spreadsheet,
40:01and we don't talk about the human cost
40:03to the individual employees.
40:05We don't talk about the human cost, as Congressman Oshkoski just said,
40:08to the American people
40:10when these services are cut with such a short-sighted nature.
40:14And again, I want to thank my colleagues.
40:16I want to thank my bipartisan colleagues.
40:18Because even if you might agree with some things that DOJ has done,
40:24and I actually share something.
40:26My parents are also Republicans, but they're also civil servants.
40:29So even if you agree with some of these things,
40:31it has been admitted that mistakes were made in moving too quickly.
40:35We've seen that with civil servants who are protecting our nuclear arsenal.
40:39We've seen that with civil servants who are protecting us against avian flu.
40:43We've seen that across the board.
40:44So even when mistakes are made,
40:46when those civil servants are reinstated,
40:48if they even choose to come back into public service,
40:51we owe them the respect and dignity of honoring their service to date.
40:55And that's what this bill is all about.
40:57That's what I'm grateful to serve in Congress every day
41:00and fight for these employees every single day.
41:02And I just want to thank everybody who was here,
41:04and I am happy to take questions.
41:16Sure, it's a really simple bill.
41:18It just says that if a probationary employee has been fired during this term,
41:22and they are reinstated for whatever reason,
41:25the bill is silent on how they would be reinstated.
41:28If it's, again, the courts, if a mistake were made,
41:30that we simply honor the time that they have served.
41:33And so like Daniel, who was one day away from ending his probationary status,
41:38he doesn't have to, if he chooses to come back and is reinstated,
41:41he doesn't have to start the clock again at day zero or day one in public service
41:45so that we're honoring their service to date.
41:47Very simple bill.
41:49Probably one of the shortest bills introduced in Congress.
41:51Simple, common sense, bipartisan idea.
41:58Thank you all very much for being here.