Hi Friend,
Here we are in our final full week of session and just when I think that we in the Virginia legislature are making some progress in addressing the issues of the day, another wave of bad news from Washington hits us in the face, and our success seems all for naught. I have written here previously about the devastating health impacts of the Trump administration's executive orders cutting funding to Federally Qualified Health Centers and threatening the same for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. This week, I started hearing from federal public servant constituents who had received termination letters. I know some of those federal employees, and any government or company would be fortunate to have them working there. Rather than recognizing their contributions to our country, however, the federal administration sent them letters full of grammatical errors and misspellings stating the public servants were being fired due to "poor performance."
To give you a more personal look at what we are dealing with here, see the excerpts below from a public servant friend's outreach to Senator Kaine's office sharing the details of her termination:
Dear Senator Tim Kaine,
I am one of the thousands of young professionals fired from the federal workforce as a result of the Trump Administration’s illegal and undignified reduction in force directive.
Most egregiously was the following paragraph in my termination letter:
"Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the Agency."
In my 25 years on this Earth, no one has ever called me a poor performer (see list of academic and healthcare research credentials and achievements).
Upon graduation (from obtaining a master's in public policy), I was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow, the federal government’s flagship leadership development program, and was hired to Federal Service in August of 2024 at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In the interim, I decided not to take a break but rather return to Virginia for a few months to assist with the needs of Virginia’s Primary Care Task Force. After I started at CMS, I spent six months in federal service focusing primarily on the coverage transition needs of individuals who have lost their Medicaid Coverage and now needed coverage on the ACA Marketplace. During that time, I received a perfect performance review. Yet, despite all this, the Trump Administration views me as a poor performer.
My story is not unique. Any of my coworkers who were also terminated over the weekend could copy and paste what I wrote above, only having to change a few contextual details. They were like me – people who believed so deeply in the mission of this country that they chose to forgo opportunities in the private sector, take an oath to uphold our Nation’s Constitution, and serve the American people as public servants.
We have been betrayed, the mission has been betrayed, and most importantly, the American people have been betrayed by our government. Thousands of hardworking and mission-driven young people will never return to federal service. The calamity of that loss and impact of it cannot even begin to be calculated.
Although I am no longer a federal employee, I will always continue to carry out my oath and promise to the American people. I am writing this letter as a continuation of that oath and to implore you, Senator Tim Kaine, and the rest of Congress to act and act immediately to minimize this great loss.
- Emma
Emma is exactly the type of person who we want to be serving us at CMS and other federal agencies. I am confident that Emma will find another job, and whoever she works for will be fortunate to have her. But will she be able to maintain her passion for addressing challenges with our Medicaid system when the government she wants to help has rejected her? That is the compounding effect of these baseless terminations: the President is removing the very people who can actually make government more effective.
I strongly encourage any other federal public servants who have received a similar, unfounded termination letter to share their stories with one or both of our U.S. Senators and their Congressmen. And I can only hope that at some point soon, reason will return to Washington and prevail.
Meanwhile, I applaud Speaker Don Scott for creating the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions, a bipartisan panel tasked with assessing the economic fallout and crafting solutions to protect the Commonwealth from the administration slashing the federal workforce and attempting to freeze billions in funding. As the Speaker noted in announcing the creation of the emergency committee:
“This is not about politics — it’s about protecting Virginia’s workforce, economy, and essential services, With nearly 145,000 federal civilian employees and even more federal contractors calling Virginia home, we depend on a strong partnership with the federal government to provide critical services. The federal administration’s announced plans to ‘drain’ the federal workforce and the pause in federal funding raise serious concerns for Virginia’s economy and the ability to maintain essential services.”
The emergency committee will be holding its first meeting Saturday at 10:00 am in the House Appropriations Room 1200. You can find all meeting details HERE.
As always, If you have any questions or need assistance with a state agency, please contact my office at DelRWillett@house.virginia.gov or phone at 804-698-1073, and my expert staff will be happy to assist you. I also will continue to keep you informed with relevant, accurate information via X/Twitter, Facebook, and my website. Please stay well and stay in touch.
Sincerely,
