Democrats from Virginia are bracing for their constituents, which include large numbers of federal employees, to be among the hardest hit by a set of executive orders that President Donald Trump signed within hours of taking office.
Trump’s orders — which include efforts to strip protections from career employees and bring remote workers back to the office — would scramble the day-to-day reality of thousands of federal workers’ jobs. Virginia Democrats, who are very familiar with the expertise and makeup of federal employees, are concerned about what these orders will mean in the short and long term for how government functions.
“It will have a chilling effect on our federal employees, from calling out abuses of power or instances where the executive branch tries to overstep its authority,” Rep. Jennifer McClellan told NOTUS. She added that recategorizing federal employees in a way that would make it easier to fire career employees, widely called Schedule F, is the “first step” in reshaping the federal government to give Trump more leverage.