Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Virginia’s top Democratic lawmaker sounded the alarm President-elect Trump The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to tell a portion of the federal workforce that “you’re being laid off” for efficiency reasons.
The top Republican in the state Senate responded Thursday, saying the majority party is “asking the wrong question.”
Earlier this week, House Speaker Don Scott Jr. wrote a letter to the Commonwealth’s unemployment agency warning of the consequences of this plan and a possible increase in claims of unemployment
“We should all be concerned about what these changes mean for the employees who raise their families in Virginia, pay taxes in Virginia and call Virginia home,” Scott wrote to Virginia Employment Commissioner Demetrios Melis in a letter reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
SENIOR SENATOR DOGE ASKS LAME-DUCK BIDEN AGENCIES TO STOP COSTLY TELEWORKING, WITH VOTER MANDATE
The Washington, DC skyline (Saul Loeb/Getty)
“Take President-elect Trump at his word that he will move immediately to reduce staffing and relocate agencies, we can safely assume that a large portion of our workforce residing in the Commonwealth will be adversely affected,” Scott added, D-Portsmouth. .
Scott reportedly said he believes Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area he represents would be the hardest hit.
“I am concerned that in the coming months, not only will our nation experience a massive increase in unemployment because of the proposed changes in our government. But more importantly, these changes will have a detrimental effect on Virginians, our community’s unemployment rate. and our overall economy,” he told the Times-Dispatch.
However, Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-New Kent, said the DOGE concept addresses a larger concern for Virginians and US taxpayers when it comes to fiscally responsible governance.
“That’s the wrong question,” McDougle said in an interview Thursday.
YOUNGKIN ‘PERSONALLY INVITES’ NEW TRUMP ADMIN TO SETTLE IN VA OVER MD, DC
“The question should be whether we are taking the dollars that Virginians are earning and paying to the federal government and whether they are being spent wisely.
“If the federal government is paying people to do jobs they shouldn’t be doing, that’s reckless spending of taxpayer dollars.”
Trump’s DOGE co-leader, Vivek Ramaswamy, he previously told Fox Business“We expect massive reductions … (and) certain agencies to be eliminated outright.”
Ramaswamy’s counterpart Elon Musk has expressed similar sentiments, including a tweet that says“Delete CFPB,” a reference to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Also, Sen. Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican seen as the top DOGE lawmaker in the upper house, is spearheading a bill to move about one-third of federal workers outside the District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia area. Ernst’s proposed legislation has a long acronym, the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act.
Virginia Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover/New Kent (Virginia Senate)
Ernst also demanded answers from Biden agency bosses about the work-from-home policies enjoyed by their staff.
In his remarks Thursday, McDougle added that if Democrats were so concerned about the issue, they should have rejected plans to funnel Virginia taxpayer funds into the Washington-area subway system to “subsidize” the shortfall of the telework policies criticized by Ernst.
“I didn’t feel like our Democratic friends were that concerned about the millions of dollars that were going to go to fund Metro in the middle (that federal workers weren’t required) to come into the office and have to subsidize them,” McDougle said.
Virginia’s 2024 budget included about $144 million in Metro funding. Metro CEO Randy Clarke said in June that the transit agency found an additional $50 million in efficiencies for its nearly $5 billion budget, according to multiple reports.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Earlier this month, a top Democrat on the state House Labor Committee said she was “very disappointed” with the response from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s representatives when she raised concerns about potential cuts to the federal workforce.
State Delegate Candi Mundon KingD-Dumfries, noted in November that thousands of federal workers live in the state and his district and called DOGE’s plan “disastrous” after the Virginia Republican Party touted “streamlining the government bureaucracy” as “good for all Americans.” , including Virginians.”
Mundon King’s district is in the Washington exurb of Prince William County, which for many years was led by high-profile conservative Corey Stewart, but has recently gone heavily Democratic.
Virginia Welcome Sign (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty)
“It’s no wonder Northern Virginia has lost faith in Virginia Republicans,” Mundon King said.
Youngkin, a successful business executive before entering politics, previously said that anyone who leaves the private sector to work in government will immediately recognize that drastic adjustments are needed.
“Whether I go into state government in Virginia or President Trump goes back into the federal government, (we know) it’s inefficient. It’s not operating as efficiently as you would expect a business to,” he told The Daily Progress. of Charlottesville.
The government’s efficiency plans “may result in some job losses for the federal government … The great thing about the Commonwealth of Virginia is that we have almost 300,000 unfilled jobs,” he added.
Melis said Scott Virginia is “well prepared” to accommodate changes in employment numbers and assured Mundon King earlier this month that some of the concerns expressed were premature, according to The Roanoke Times.
Youngkin earlier this month invited workers in the incoming Trump administration to choose Virginia as a place of residence over Maryland or the District of Columbia, citing in part lower taxes and top-rated schools.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Youngkin’s spokesman Christian Martinez said Virginia’s economy was “stagnant” and the unemployment system “stagnant” when the Republican took office after eight years as governor democrat
“Common-sense policies to lower the cost of living and bring real business efficiency to government have helped fix both of those things,” Martinez said.
“The governor welcomes President Scott’s recent commitments to support more tax relief, which, along with a roaring economy and more than 300,000 open jobs, means Virginia is in a great position as the president works to shrink government bloated federal”.
