You know those stories about mill towns where a new owner closes the factory and everyone loses their jobs?
That’s what it’s like in DC right now but the factory is the federal government and the new owner is Elon Musk.
A lot of local folks call DC a company town, and the government is the company. It seems like everyone is connected to politics or policy. At any gathering in my neighborhood you’ll find yourself talking to a lawyer from DoJ, a public health program director, a grant administrator at NIH, a scientist at EPA, a regulator at the SEC. One of my daughter’s friends likes to joke, “The feds are after me!” when his federal employee dad shows up to drive him home.
Most of these federal workers are career employees, non-partisan subject matter experts who have worked through multiple presidential administrations. They are public servants in the truest sense of the word. If you ask them about their jobs, they can all draw a clear line between what they do every day and how it benefits the American people. Their values don’t change from election to election and neither does their commitment to their work.
Now their work is under attack.
These past two weeks have felt like a multi-car pile up in my community, with more vehicles slamming into the chaos with each passing hour. Every day, there’s a headline about Musk prancing into an agency and announcing sweeping cuts to staff. Every day, I text friends and neighbors to see if they’re ok. Every conversation is about who has lost a job, or is about to lose a job, who can’t do their job because of cuts to funding or programs or entire agency missions.
Soon, those conversations will be about who is losing their house, who can’t afford their kids’ college, who is leaving the community they love because there are no job opportunities here.
The starkest conversations are the ones where federal workers describe what all the changes to government programs mean for the people they serve. How will food aid get to the families who need it? How will rural residents get medical care with community health centers shuttered? How will we will maintain positive foreign relations when we can’t offer basic assistance to other nations? Who will stop banks from charging excessive consumer fees? Will college students get their financial aid payments? What will Musk do with information he harvested about Medicare recipients? Who will protect the most vulnerable people in America from the richest man in the world?
There is no precedent for slashing government as dramatically and as indiscriminately as Trump and Musk are doing. It’s difficult to fathom how far-reaching the effects will be.
But we want to tell this story. We want to give voice to what’s happening in government and how it’s affecting both public servants and the public they serve.
If you are a federal employee, a grant recipient, or beneficiary of a federal program, we invite you to share your story with us – if it is safe for you to do so. We can spotlight these stories on our blog and help you pass them along to federal, state, and local officials. Simply reach out via out the contact form at the bottom of our home page. We will get back to you to discuss what next steps you are comfortable taking.
Civic Action Hub of Maryland 