Blast radius of purges

We memorialize the impact of your service on our safety, health, and democracy

Dear civil servant,

As the new Administration has hacked away at the federal workforce over the past few weeks, it has been hard to watch the reaction of those who cheered as you lost your jobs and as whole agencies were effectively shut down.

But the work of the civil service — your work — is critical to the functioning of American society. And there are growing signs that the American people are starting to realize this. The destruction of the federal workforce is having real world impacts in all of our backyards.

In this note, we have a few resources to share with civil servants, but we largely focus on acknowledging and memorializing the ways in which the administration’s cuts to your work are hurting real people, right now, across America.

New resources

• FAQ on the rights of federal employees with disabilities: A new explainer from the Bazelon center.

• A primer on reductions in force: A new explainer from Lawfare.

• Podcasts on federal employees’ rights: Just Security’s podcast episode What Just Happened: Understanding Federal Employee Rights and of course The Daily’s feature on civil servants.

• A secure, anonymous portal for sharing information about the impacts of changes in the federal government: A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit has created a platform where government workers and others can share how federal contract terminations, staff cuts and data issues impact their work without using personal information.

Untended nukes, diminished air-traffic controller ranks, shuttered national parks, and other hazards of the purges

The services and support that our government provides — and that you spent decades helping administer — are critical to people across the country and the world.

Where to begin?

Safety. Weeks after the fatal plane crash in D.C., the administration has begun firing several hundred FAA employees, including “personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance.” Farmers are facing financial crisis due to funding cuts. After the Department of Energy accidentally fired nuclear safety workers and then tried to recall them, some workers who were fired have not returned. Trump’s hiring freeze has halted onboarding of federal firefighters ahead of wildfire season, and the layoffs of National Parks and Forests workers means less personnel for fire-safety education efforts, search and rescue missions, and wilderness patrol.

Health. Some health clinics and nonprofits serving rural and low-income patients are unable to access previously allocated federal funds, disrupting patient care. Dozens of clinical trials have been abruptly frozen, leaving people across the country and world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies. Vietnam’s victims of Agent Orange have been left without support and climate disaster aid groups are on the brink of shutdown. One USAID worker told Wired that after DOGE blocked assistance aimed at preventing HIV, “at a minimum, 300 babies that wouldn’t have had HIV, now do.” During the worst flu season in decades, the communications embargo at the CDC is making the disease harder to track. Meanwhile, half of the CDC’s Disease Detectors have been fired, disemboweling the country’s epidemic intelligence surveillance.

The impacts of this month alone will be with us for generations. NIH cut billions of dollars in biomedical funding, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease. Years from now, we will be left wondering if the funds that were frozen could have kept our loved ones alive. (Strikingly, those dismantling the federal government reportedly have seen their own family members’ lives directly saved by NIH research.)

Infrastructure. Staffing and funding cuts at HUD seem poised to delay home and road rebuilding efforts in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Other forms of economic security are also on the line; housing markets across the country that include a large number of federal workers are reeling from “return-to-office” mandates and terminations.

Kids, veterans, and other vulnerable communities. Vulnerable communities and their support service providers have been particularly burdened by these personnel and funding cuts. Around the country, 57 Head Start programs across 25 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico lost access to funds. Native American tribes across the country have lost critical staff and funds, endangering access to education and solar power projects. The administration’s partial dismantling of the Department of Education impacts a disproportionate numberof low-income students; its weaponization of the Department's funding is being used to threaten historically Black sororities and fraternities and curricula. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, workers who provide critical support to former service members are suffering from the confusion and chaos. Nonprofits that serve at-risk individuals and communities are struggling to operate.

Yes, in your back yard

This administration has detonated an implosion of our government, and no one is beyond the blast radius. Just look at this sampling of heart-wrenching news out of all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico:

• Alabama: NIH cut would cost University of Alabama - Birmingham $70 million, threaten jobs and “life-saving research” in Alabama.

• Alaska: “An outsized impact”: Federal layoffs begin in Alaska on Trump orders.

• Arizona: Arizona universities face massive cuts to medical research if Trump’s plan is implemented.

• Arkansas: Kids at the elementary school at Fort Campbell, home of the 101st airborne that helped desegregate Little Rock schools, can’t read about their parents’ heroic predecessors, because the civil rights movement appears to count as “DEI.”

• California: Trump’s funding cuts leave the nation vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire.

• Colorado: More than 150 Forest Service workers managing public land in Colorado lose jobs as part of Trump cuts.

• Connecticut: 21 school districts lost vital federal funding.

• Delaware: Federal funding freeze created chaos for Delaware nonprofits.

• Florida: Federal research scientists worry firings will jeopardize data collection on coastal erosion and water levels — which help counties and cities to understand flood risks.

• Georgia: A Trump siege at the C.D.C. and an attack on Atlanta’s “Global Health Capital.”

• Hawai’i: Federal layoffs have real-world consequences in the islands.

• Idaho: “Scared, upset and angry”: Forest Service cuts hit Idaho's Payette National Forest following Trump Administration order.

• Illinois: President Donald Trump’s moves to end foreign aid agency hit close to home in Illinois.

• Indiana: Trump’s funding freeze could hinder projects to provide solar energy to hundreds of households in two low-and moderate-income Columbus neighborhoods.

• Iowa: “I'm not sure what's next”: National Park ranger in Iowa among thousands fired Friday.

• Kansas: Billions of dollars at stake for farmers hit by Trump funding freeze, pause on foreign aid.

• Kentucky: Impending cuts to Forest Service workforce may gut staff at Red River Gorge, Cave Run in Kentucky.

• Louisiana: “There was nothing left to cut”: Layoffs spark concern for SWLA wildlife refuges.

• Maine: Layoffs could hurt work at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard PSNY, whose 8,000 civilian employees build our nuclear submarine defense systems. In a letter to OPM, Maine Senator Collins sought PSNY’s exemption from the buyout program.

• Maryland: “Confusion rules the day”: Trump orders force layoffs at refugee org.

• Massachusetts: Boston University (BU) leadership strongly opposes NIH move to cut funding for “research that helps improve human health and save lives” — risking BU’s advances in early detection of skin cancer, a bionic pancreas used by more than 15,000 Americans with Type I diabetes, etc.

• Michigan: Federal research cuts would rock Michigan economy, halt clinical trials, those affected say.

• Minnesota: DEI rollback threatens Black/Native health program.

• Mississippi: For federally dependent Mississippi, Trump’s grant freeze could halt $11 billion.

• Missouri: Kansas City IRS workers brace for mass layoff. Union fears 1,000 workers will be cut.

• Montana: Bozeman nonprofits brace for potential federal funding cuts.

• Nebraska: Federal layoffs surprise Nebraska cattle research center, sparking concern from cattlemen.

• Nevada: “Lives are at risk”: Federal funding cuts threaten Nevada drug overdose research.

• New Hampshire: Federal workers from New Hampshire face job losses amid mass government layoffs.

• New Jersey: DOGE imposes cuts to 9/11 Survivors’ Fund, reducing staff by 20% and cancelling grants, drawing bipartisan pushback.

• New Mexico: Uncertainty looms over University of New Mexico with proposed federal research funding cuts. Reports say the University could lose over $20 million in medical research.

• New York: Local domestic abuse treatment center in Utica, New York says federal funding cut will hurt women.

• North Carolina: Veteran says her mammogram was cancelled due to VA staffing shortages.

• North Dakota: With federal funds again on the chopping block, the University of North Dakota’s research community holds its breath.

• Ohio: Here’s how much Ohio schools stand to lose under a dismantled Department of Education.

• Oklahoma: “We’re your neighbors, friends and family”: Oklahoma City Federal Aviation Administration workers axed in federal firings feel betrayed, concerned by rhetoric.

• Oregon: Mass layoffs at Bonneville Power Administration raise concerns about reliability of power grid. Oregon Senators have also raised alarm bells about Oregon’s electric grid, due to these federal cuts.

• Pennsylvania: Independence park and local FAA office caught in federal firing spree.

• Puerto Rico: Funding cuts could jeopardize a local nonprofit’s programs, including one that provides food and shelter to individuals and families in need, and another that donates solar panels to those who can’t afford electricity.

• Rhode Island: Federal workers terminated from Rhode Island USDA Office warn of impacts on residents, including loss of funding to local farmers.

• South Carolina: State research universities could lose tens of millions under Trump's federal funds cut.

• South Dakota: “It’s demoralizing”: Trump’s climate funding freeze has left tribes and community groups in limbo.

• Tennessee: Foreign aid freeze halts University of Tennessee international agriculture program.

• Texas: Elon Musk’s federal downsizing plans could close as many as 450 Texas facilities, including multiple sites that house offices for the Social Security Administration, Farm Service Agency, and Small Business Administration.

• Utah: “It's devastating”: Utah federal employee scrambles for work after mass layoff.

• Vermont: Vermont Aid Workers Reel in Wake of Rapid USAID Cuts.

• Virginia: Job centers in northern Virginia prepare to help more federal workers as layoffs persist while the Fairfax County chairperson warns of the impact to the local economy if layoffs continue.

• Washington: Trump layoffs hit Pacific Northwest engineers and researchers at PNNL, Hanford cleanup, elsewhere.

• Washington, D.C.: Shockwaves for DC regional economy: Trump layoffs spur surge in jobless claims

• West Virginia: Cuts to services that support people with disabilities.

• Wisconsin: Waukesha Head Start program shuts down over funding fears, system lockout.

• Wyoming: Valentine’s Day massacre: Uncounted throng of Wyomingites fired by Trump administration.

Your work matters. You matter. We are sorry that it has taken some so long to recognize that, but we hope people around the country are beginning to better appreciate what your service means.

What we’re reading

• Congressional Research Service: Congress’s Power Over Appropriations: Constitutional and Statutory Provisions (June 16, 2020)

• Sherrilyn Ifill’s The Other Constitutional Crisis

• New York Times: Trump Team Finds Loophole to Effectively Maintain Spending Freezes

• Can We Still Govern?: The Weaponization of Trauma: The human toll being paid by public employees (Guest post by Rachael Dietkus)