By Menntalla Ibrahim, Daranee Balachandar, Colin McNamara, Sasha Allen and Emma Tufo
Capital News Service
WASHINGTON — Nearly 40 recently terminated federal workers walked from Senate office to Senate office Feb. 25, hoping to share their stories with senators and their staff.
The visits were promoted through various channels, including a Signal group for terminated federal employees and the Fork Off Coalition, a grassroots group of current and former federal workers protesting the Trump administration’s recent firings of federal employees.
Almost 30,000 federal employees across the country have been fired since billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began its work in late January, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Law.
“I’m hoping that we can shed light on what federal government workers accomplish and reverse course before it’s too late and all these departments really crumble,” said a 28-year-old Washington resident who asked not to be identified. She was a visual information specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before she was fired on Feb. 15.
In the late afternoon, Maryland Democratic lawmakers met with federal union leaders in the United States Capitol to denounce the Trump-Musk firings and program cuts.
Rep. Kweisi Mfume held a sign renaming DOGE as the “Department of Government Evil.”
“The simple message is leave federal workers alone. Period,” Mfume said. “This notion of Elon Musk ticks all of us off, but we can’t get so upset by it that we miss the fact that we have to organize our people in the street. They’ve got to know that there is real hope.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen charged that DOGE’s actions are not about government efficiency.
“All of us agree that we can find ways to make the government more efficient in a targeted, surgical way,” he said. “What this has been about is taking over key government agencies to rig them in a way that they do the bidding of people like Elon Musk…and try to hack away services that benefit all Americans.”
Rep. Sarah Elfreth, in a statement to Capital News Service, cited the high volume of calls and emails she’s received from her constituents.
“Since DOGE—led by unappointed and unelected billionaire Elon Musk—began taking a sledgehammer to the federal government, I have heard from and met with many concerned civil servants in the Third District,” Elfreth said. “It is clear from my conversations that President Musk and DOGE have no strategy or plan besides stoking chaos and demoralizing government workers.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told CNS: “I think this department is a facade.”
“I think that it’s just a way that the president is paying back his buddies…and it’s at the expense of the federal workforce,” Kelley said.
“They are threatening the federal workforce and it’s all to try to get them to quit, so that the federal government goes into a mission failure,” he said. “If the federal employees are not there, then they can easily contract out that work.”
Several of the fired federal workers shared their experiences with CNS. Here are some of their stories:
The ex-CDC worker said she had worked remotely for the agency since 2019, but she took on a new role five months ago, making her vulnerable to ongoing federal probationary firings. A Washington resident, she is now among thousands of probationary workers laid off across federal agencies.
“I knew it was coming. I knew that once it was official, I would start crying,” she told CNS. “But when I saw the letter, I was actually very mad. I have never been more incensed in my life because of the content of the letter.”
She said the letter, which included nearly identical language from termination letters across the federal government, cited inadequate performance and deemed her unfit for employment—claims she found shocking and easy to disprove.
A Wisconsin native, she has always been passionate about infectious diseases and had dreamed of working at the CDC since discovering its booth at a college job fair. She said that the apparent job security in the federal government was just a bonus for her.
She plans to join a class-action lawsuit appealing to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, arguing that the proper reduction-in-force procedures were not followed.
Peter Kerndt, 72, was a physician for the U.S. Agency of International Development Global Health Bureau before he received a work termination email on Jan. 28. A California resident, he had worked remotely since October 2020, specializing in the Infectious Disease Tuberculosis Division in Washington.
“I am going to do fine,” Kerndt said about his termination. “That’s why I have to be here…to support (other federal workers) and I think that’s what we need—to stay together.”
Kerndt shared his concern for those his team served in countries like Mozambique, Tanzania and the Philippines, where DOGE earlier this month cut aid to combat diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and HIV.
“It started with USAID, but it’s not stopping here,” Kerndt said. “You don’t go about making a bureaucracy work better by destroying it.”
Brandon Bradley, a 23-year-old Washington resident, worked as a government affairs specialist at the National Science Foundation before being laid off.
On Feb. 15, Bradley said he was called into a meeting with human resources—without his supervisors’ knowledge—and was told he was being terminated, needed to transfer his work to someone else and would be dismissed by 5 p.m.
Bradley, who started at NSF in October, was vulnerable to a probationary termination. He asserted that the agency made it clear he and his colleagues were not fired based on performance or conduct, but that it came as a surprise since leadership had assured him in late January that he would not be fired.
“I love this job, and so to be told that’s no longer the case with an hour’s notice, I was heartbroken,” Bradley said. “It didn’t really hit me until the rest of the week that I had nowhere to go.”
A Texas native, Bradley moved to Washington in 2022 to work for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, while pursuing a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Born with a visual disability, Bradley knew he couldn’t complete military basic training like his parents and older brothers, all Navy veterans. Instead, he pursued public service in another way, working for the U.S. government, the Texas House of Representatives and as a substitute middle school science teacher.
“If you just try and hollow out the federal government, you are going to hollow out communities across this country,” Bradley said. “So much of what folks are doing across the country, especially in rural communities, is reliant on federal workers administering government programs, and that needs to be understood.”
Ariella Bock, a former senior supply chain advisor specializing in HIV, was terminated from the U.S. Agency of International Development shortly after the new administration took office.
“I think it’s important for people to see the faces of federal workers, and also understand the diversity and the impact of the current situation,” Bock said. “It’s not just about me as an individual.”
Bock, a Washington resident, joined the Feb. 25 gathering in hopes of sharing her story—as well as her resume. Throughout the morning, the group visited several senators’ offices, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota.
“We haven’t spoken to any senators at this point, some of them have had staff and seem sympathetic,” Bock said. “Some of them aren’t giving us the time of day and kick us out of the space. They currently seem to be working, I think, for themselves.”
Allie Mitchell is a former clinical trials specialist in Alzheimer’s research at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. She said she relocated from Florida to Washington for her role in September, and received her termination letter on Feb. 15.
She stepped out on Feb. 25 in search of her next professional opportunity, she said.
“I thought it would be more sitting in offices today and applying to jobs together,” Mitchell said. “I brought my computer, my resume—in case anybody here works in public health.”
Mitchell also said that being around others is helping her cope with her firing.
“I’m here because I’m really sad, and I don’t want to be at home and be sad,” she said. “I’d rather be around other people.”