Virginia's top legislative Democrat sounded the alarm President-elect Trump The Department of State Efficiency (DOGE) plans to tell a portion of the federal workforce “you're fired” for the sake of efficiency.
The top Republican in the state Senate responded Thursday by 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 ramifications of such a plan and a potential spike in unemployment claims.
“We should all be concerned about what these changes mean for employees who raise their families in Virginia, pay taxes in Virginia, and call Virginia home,” Scott wrote to Virginia Employment Commissioner Demetrius Millis in a letter published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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Washington, D.C., skyline (Saul Loeb/Getty)
“Given President-elect Trump's words that he will move immediately to downsize the workforce and move agencies, we can safely assume that a significant portion of our workforce located in the commonwealth will be negatively impacted,” added Scott, D-Portsmouth. .
Scott reportedly said he believes Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area he represents will be hardest hit.
“I have concerns that, in the coming months, our nation will not only see a significant increase in unemployment due to our government's proposed changes. But more importantly, these changes will have a detrimental impact on Virginians, and our commonwealth's unemployment rate,” he told the Times-Dispatch. “And our economy in general.”
However, Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-New Kent, said the DOGE concept addresses a larger concern that Virginians and American taxpayers have when it comes to fiscally responsible governance.
“That's the wrong question,” McDougle said in an interview Thursday.
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“The question must be whether we are taking the dollars that Virginians earn 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, it's an unwise expenditure of taxpayer money.”
DOGE Co-Chair for Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, he previously told Fox Business“We expect mass cuts… (and) the complete elimination of certain agencies.”
Ramaswamy's counterpart, Elon Musk, expressed similar sentiments, Including a tweet stating“Delete the CFPB,” referring to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In addition, Sen. Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican who is seen as the Senate's top lawmaker, Bill leads the transition About one-third of federal workers are outside the District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia area. Ernest's legislation has a long acronym: the Swamp Draining Act.
Virginia Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover/New Kent (Virginia Senate)
Ernst also demanded answers from Biden's agency heads about the work-from-home policies their employees have in place.
In his remarks Thursday, McDougle added that if Democrats were so concerned about the issue, they should have rejected plans to divert Virginia taxpayer money to the Washington area's Metro system to “subsidize” the lack of ridership from remote work policies that Ernst criticized.
“I didn't feel like our Democratic friends were as concerned about the millions of dollars that would go to funding Metro in the midst of (federal employees not being required) to go into offices and having to support them,” McDougle said.
Virginia's 2024 budget included about $144 million in Metro funding. Metro CEO Randy Clark said in June that the transit agency had found an additional $50 million in efficiencies to its nearly $5 billion budget, according to multiple reports.
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Earlier this month, a ranking Democrat on the state House Labor Committee said she was “extremely disappointed” with the reaction of Gov. Glenn Youngkin's representatives when she expressed concerns about potential cuts to the federal workforce.
State Rep. Candy Mondon KingDemocratic Rep. Dumfries noted in November that thousands of federal workers live in the state and her district and called the DOGE plan “disastrous” after the Virginia GOP described “simplifying government bureaucracy” as “beneficial to all Americans, including Virginians.” “
Mondon-King is located on the outskirts of Washington's Prince William County, which was led by prominent conservative Corey Stewart for many years, but has recently shifted heavily Democratic.
Virginia welcome sign (Joe Sohm/America Visions/Global Image Collection/Getty)
“No wonder Northern Virginia has lost confidence in Virginia Republicans,” Mundon King said.
Yongqin, a successful businessman before entering politics, said anyone leaving the private sector to work in government would immediately realize they needed radical adjustments.
“Whether you come into Virginia state government or President Trump goes back into federal government, we know that this is inefficient. It doesn't work as efficiently as you would expect from any business,” he told The Daily Progress. From Charlottesville.
He added that government efficiency plans “may result in some job losses for the federal government…and the great thing about the Commonwealth of Virginia is that we have nearly 300,000 job vacancies.”
Likewise, Millis Scott told Virginia he was “well prepared” to adapt to changes in employment numbers and reassured Mondon King earlier this month that some of the concerns expressed were premature, according to the Roanoke Times.
Youngkin earlier this month called on workers in the incoming Trump administration to choose Virginia as their residence over Maryland or the District of Columbia, citing in part its lower taxes and better-rated schools.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Youngkin's spokesman, Christian Martinez, said Virginia's economy was “stagnant” and the unemployment system “a mess” when the Republican took office after eight years under the Democratic governor.
“Common-sense policies to lower the cost of living and bring true business-like efficiency to the government helped fix both,” Martinez said.
“The Governor appreciates Speaker Scott’s recent commitments to support more tax relief, which, coupled with a thriving economy and more than 300,000 open jobs, means Virginia is in a great position as the President works to shrink a bloated federal government.”
