Democratic Lawmakers Provide Townhall to Air Frustration from Massive Layoffs
Republican Members of Congress have been advised to avoid townhall meetings. Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional delegation held a townhall Monday in Portland to hear from federal workers who have been fired or feel under siege.
More 300 former and current federal employees showed up to vent their frustration and anger. As reported by Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle, attendees included veterans’ health care workers, climate and agricultural scientists and government technology specialists.
Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Congresswomen Andrea Salinas, Val Hoyle and Maxine Dexter held the townhall. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield also attended. Congresswoman Janelle Bynum had scheduled conflicting townhalls in her own district.
Glum Picture of Federal Workplace
Fired and current workers painted a glum picture of working for the federal government. After passage of a stopgap funding measure that gives President Trump even more latitude in spending decisions, they predicted the situation will get worse with worker shortages, services canceled and unresponsive service.
They reacted harshly to Senate passage of a GOP-backed stopgap funding package that includes spending cuts and gives President Trump more leeway on spending decisions that Congress had approved. Some who spoke pressed Wyden and Merkley to vote to replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who voted for the funding measure to avoid a government shutdown.
Baumhardt featured townhall comments by Matt Casey, a near 30-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who works as a visual information specialist who has created educational installations at national parks and wildlife preserves across the West.
He chose to work for the Fish and Wildlife Service over working for ad agencies and corporations years ago, Casey said, because he believed in the mission of public service more than the higher salary he could have commanded in the private sector. Now he wonders whether he should look for another job.
“How will you ever get anyone to go into public service when the federal government is not a reliable employer?” Casey said. “I got away from the private sector to get away from rich people who decided they could do anything they wanted.”
Casey openly worried about whether he and other federal employees will retain their retirement savings and medical insurance. “At this stage I would love to stay longer,” he said, “but what are the guarantees that rules will be followed?”
Baumhardt also featured comments by Shawn McMurtrey, a military veteran and plant scientist who before his termination in February worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture preventing the spread of fungus in Hood River pear orchards. “This is not the America I swore an oath to protect,” he said. “I am not a waste of money. My fellow employees and veterans are not a waste of money.”
Democrats Response to Layoffs
Wyden led off the meeting with, “We so wish we didn’t need to have this meeting,” then encouraged anyone who wished to speak but who feared retaliation to submit their testimonies to his office’s new portal for whistleblower complaints.
Merkley assailed an “authoritarian president who’s destroying our republic” and pledged to reporters after the townhall, “We’re going to use all of our power to make sure that on September 30, when there is the next termination of funding, that we come out with a completely different decision than what happened last Friday.”
Dexter said cutbacks are “eroding trust in our federal work opportunities in a way that is going to have generational impact.”
Several attendees, who said they chose federal service, rued how federal workers are being treated. Estelle Robichaux, who identified herself as a climate scientist working with the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, said she was fired as a probationary worker, then reinstated because of legal action, but still isn’t fully back at work.
“To be frank, I won’t seek federal service again during this administration,” Robichaux said. “And that makes me really sad, because this is something that I have worked for and aspired towards most of my adult life.”
Rayfield recounted how his office has filed or joined eight nationwide legal actions to block Trump-backed spending cuts. He said six of the eight have been successful. Rayfield plans to ask the 2025 legislature to double his funding for legal actions.
