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Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “I welcome a judicial order to halt the Musk Administration’s abuse of USAID’s workforce even temporarily.”

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Blue Virginia
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From Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)’s office:

Beyer Statement On USAID

February 7, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), who organized Members of Congress to show support for employees of the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID) at USAID headquarters on Monday, issued the following statement today after a federal judge said he would temporarily halt the Musk Administration’s assault on USAID employees:

“I welcome a judicial order to halt the Musk Administration’s abuse of USAID’s workforce even temporarily. The court should uphold the law and put a full and permanent stop to the illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, and corrupt destruction of USAID.

“Over the past week, I have heard from hundreds of constituents affected by the assault on USAID. Some are tearful employees facing job loss for the ‘crime’ of doing important work their country asked them to do. Some are family members afraid for USAID workers posted abroad who were cut off from their work communication and financial systems while they were still overseas. Some are people with contracts Musk is refusing to pay, looking at large-scale layoffs of American employees.

“What is happening at USAID is an unmitigated disaster for the country and the world. It is already resulting in the spread of disease, starvation, and deaths from preventable causes. Sadly we know that many of those who die if USAID is not restored will be children.

“The American people will not benefit if USAID is permanently dismantled, they will lose. America will lose friends all over the world, and we will create enemies. America will lose influence with nations that will increasingly turn to adversaries China. And America will lose something that is important to have, and hard to regain when lost: the trust of our friends.

“Anyone who respects the rule of law and honors their oath to defend the Constitution should oppose the authoritarian assault by this White House under Elon Musk on federal agencies established and funded by Congress. As this case proceeds, I will continue to stand with the brave civil servants at USAID who show the best America has to offer to people all over the world.”

Beyer represents a Northern Virginia district with one of the largest concentrations of federal employees and contractors in the U.S. House.

Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine Join Democratic Colleagues in Demanding the Veterans Administration Defend Veterans’ Private Information From Elon Musk’s DOGE

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Blue Virginia
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1

From Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine:

WARNER, KAINE JOIN DEMOCRATIC COLLEAGUES IN DEMANDING THE VA DEFEND VETERANS’ PRIVATE INFORMATION FROM ELON MUSK’S DOGE 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined Ranking Member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and 23 of their Senate Democratic colleagues in a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins pushing him to take immediate actions to secure veterans’ personal information provided by the VA or other agencies to Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). This call follows Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury’s payment system, which includes private information of veterans and their families, and reports of DOGE employees accessing VA computer systems at the Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

There are millions of veterans’ medical records stored in VA’s computer systems. These confidential records include veterans’ prescriptions, diagnoses, and procedures they have undergone. Access to these medical records could give Musk and DOGE the ability to identify veterans who have received abortions or abortion counseling in the past. The Million Veteran Program, which manages the genomic data of its more than one million veteran participants for authorized research programs, also stores its data in VA data systems. In addition, the U.S. Treasury’s payment system stores private information of veterans, surviving spouses, and their families, including their monthly disability compensation amount, home address, and bank account numbers. 

In their letter, the senators demanded the Secretary deny and sever Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and to delete any veterans’ information in their possession writing, “Among many tasks, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is entrusted with safeguarding the private and sensitive information of millions of veterans…Veterans risked their lives to defend our country, and they deserve better than to have an unelected billionaire reviewing their medical records, targeting the benefits they have earned, or using their private information for personal gain.”

“Our nation’s veterans have entrusted their health records, including genetic samples, disability data, bank information, and other private information, to VA. The Department also stores sensitive veteran casework, files of whistleblowers who have come forward with concerns about waste, fraud, and abuse, and sensitive investigative files with veteran and federal employee information,” they continued. 

The senators wrote, “Meanwhile, the President has given unfettered access to federal databases and systems to Mr. Musk, an unelected citizen, and a team of colleagues with no formal documented employment agreement with the U.S. government. It is a group of private citizens with no experience in the federal government, who lack proper approval from legal and agency authorities, lack the appropriate security clearances, and lack the requisite background investigations or ethical conflict requirements. We are outraged these unelected, unvetted, and unaccountable individuals now have access to sensitive information that has been heavily secured for decades and by Administrations of both parties.” 

A copy of the letter is available here and below: 

Dear Secretary Collins, 

Among many tasks, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is entrusted with safeguarding the private and sensitive information of millions of veterans. Today, we call on you to immediately secure any personal and related information regarding veterans provided by VA or other agencies to Elon Musk and associates under the auspices of the “Department of Government Efficiency” established under Executive Order 14158. Further, we call on you to deny and sever their access to any VA or other government system that includes information about veterans, and to require them to immediately and permanently delete any information in their possession. Veterans risked their lives to defend our country, and they deserve better than to have an unelected billionaire reviewing their medical records, targeting the benefits they have earned, or using their private information for personal gain. 

Our nation’s veterans have entrusted their health records, including genetic samples, disability data, bank information, and other private information, to VA. The Department also stores sensitive veteran casework, files of whistleblowers who have come forward with concerns about waste, fraud, and abuse, and sensitive investigative files with veteran and federal employee information. Veterans and VA employees entrusted the Department with this information with the understanding that it would be kept private and only used to help deliver the highest quality of services to veterans, their families, and survivors. 

Meanwhile, the President has given unfettered access to federal databases and systems to Mr. Musk, an unelected citizen, and a team of colleagues with no formal documented employment agreement with the U.S. government. It is a group of private citizens with no experience in the federal government, who lack proper approval from legal and agency authorities, lack the appropriate security clearances, and lack the requisite background investigations or ethical conflict requirements. We are outraged these unelected, unvetted, and unaccountable individuals now have access to sensitive information that has been heavily secured for decades and by Administrations of both parties. 

These actions are in direct violation of federal laws meant to protect our national security and the privacy of our citizens’ personal information. This includes information on Social Security payments, Medicare, Medicaid, student loans, veterans’ disability compensation payments, GI Bill payments, federal civil servants’ personnel records, and much more. With every hour, we see DOGE further expand its efforts to create a massive private database of previously guarded data outside the federal government’s cyber and legal protections. It is an abhorrent and illegal overreach of executive powers, which conflicts with various federal statutes, including the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, the Privacy Act, the E-Government Act of 2002, and likely several other cyber and national security laws.

During your confirmation process, you claimed you would be focused on rooting out corruption and ensuring accountability at VA, and committed to following the laws passed by Congress. We now call on you to respond quickly and comprehensively to these privacy violations by revoking DOGE’s access to VA systems and insisting they permanently remove all VA data collected from their files.

Ivy Main: Virginia Distributed Solar Bills Move Forward, While Progress on Siting Utility Solar Stalls Out

By
lowkell
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2

Great stuff as always from Ivy Main/Power for the People VA.

Virginia’s desire to be a leader on clean energy has faced numerous challenges over the past few years, coming from many different directions. Landowners who want utility-scale solar on their rural property face increasingly hostile county boards, with no provisions for relief.

School systems, local governments and commercial customers that want solar on their buildings have been blocked by expensive new interconnection requirements imposed by Dominion Energy. And the clock is ticking on net metering, the program that gives customers with solar panels a one-for-one credit on surplus electricity they feed back into the grid.

The solar industry is used to struggling for every foothold it gets in Virginia, but these new challenges come at a particularly bad time. With data center growth creating huge pressures on our electricity supply, Virginia needs more clean energy in every size range, and needs it now. Any coherent approach to meeting demand has to include removing unnecessary barriers to both utility-scale and distributed solar. That both are facing more barriers, rather than less, suggests the state still hasn’t figured out what it takes to be an energy leader.

None of the legislation at the General Assembly this year addresses this fundamental failing head-on, but several bills took on some of the barriers. In particular, bills focused on rooftop solar and other distributed generation have made it to halftime in decent shape.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of bills designed to bring more utility-scale solar to Virginia, including siting legislation developed by the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR) and carried by Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, and Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville. The legislation sought to tackle the biggest obstacle to unleashing gigawatts of clean, low-cost energy across Virginia: local governments that deny permits to solar and energy storage facilities, acceding to neighbors who don’t want to have to look at solar panels where they once saw fields and forests. (Anti-solar fossil fuel front groups don’t help matters either.)

On the House side, Sullivan’s HB2126 was killed in a subcommittee vote. Senate Bill 1190 made it to the Senate Floor but was defeated when two Democrats, Senators Russet Perry and Lashrecse Aird, joined with all Republicans in siding with localities that did not want to cede any part of their authority over land use. The bill would have pressured local governments, but it did not strip them of authority. They would have been required to include in their comprehensive plans targets for energy production and energy efficiency (the latter an interesting addition). In evaluating specific projects, localities would have had to consider advisory opinions that would be issued by a new interagency panel of experts recruited from Virginia universities. Perhaps of greatest import, localities would no longer have been allowed to adopt ordinances that ban all projects outright or place unreasonable restrictions on them, or deny permits “without a reasonable basis.”

The Senate bill “incorporated” (by which is meant, it jettisoned the provisions of) another solar siting bill from Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Woodbridge, and a separate piece of legislation from Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg, D-Richmond, that would have prescribed rigorous best practices for utility solar projects.

Over in the House, however, a companion to VanValkenburg’s bill from Del. Candi Munyon King, D-Dumfries, HB2438, passed the chamber 48-46. The bill came from the solar industry itself, proposing to adopt the highest standards for itself. So why wasn’t the vote unanimous? Go figure.

Bills advancing small-scale solar move forward

Legislation promoting distributed generation did not go through the CEUR pipe, but these bills show some wear and tear of their own.  A loose-knit group of advocates under the banner of the Equitable Solar Alliance came in with a package of three bills, all of which remain alive after favorable committee votes.

HB1883, from Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Charlottesville, increases the tiny carve-out for distributed solar that is part of Dominion’s obligation to buy renewable energy certificates in compliance with Virginia’s renewable portfolio standard. The bill has been pared down since it was introduced but still makes several changes benefiting behind-the-meter solar and battery storage systems under 3 MW.  The distributed generation carve-out, currently 1% of the renewable standard target, will get bumped to 3% in 2026 and 5% in 2028, with further changes possible later if the the State Corporation Commission (SCC) decides on it. Third-party power purchase agreements, which had been restricted to commercial projects, will now be available to residential customers. And whereas currently only projects smaller than 1 MW can earn up to $75 per renewable energy certificate, the bill now makes that amount available for projects up to 3 MW. (Certificates for larger solar projects are effectively capped at $45 per certificate.)

Callsen’s bill also raises to 600 MW, from 200 MW currently, the target for solar on previously developed sites. It also specifies that 65% of distributed projects qualifying for the Virginia Clean Economy Act’s 1,100 MW target for solar under 3 MW should be developed by non-utility providers.

HB1883 passed the House unanimously. Its Senate companion, SB1040 from Van Valkenburg, made it through committee without Republican support but passed the Senate 26-14.

Two other bills, HB2346 from Del. Phil Hernandez, D-Norfolk, and SB1100 from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, establish a pilot program for virtual power plants (VPPs), which aggregate customer solar and storage resources and demand response capabilities. In concept, a VPP allows a utility to pay customers to let it make use of these capabilities, enabling it to meet peak demand without having to increase generation. (If you are familiar with programs in which your utility pays you to let it cycle your air conditioner off for a few minutes at a time on hot summer days, you have the idea.) VPPs are becoming popular in other states as a way to subsidize customers’ investments in things like battery storage, while reducing utility costs and saving money for all ratepayers.

The original hope for this legislation was ambitious: a vision of energy democracy that would reshape the way utilities interact with residential and commercial customers and make the most efficient use of new technologies like electric vehicle charging and smart appliances. The financial benefits to customers could even be enough to offset the costs of investments like home batteries, potentially offering a way for rooftop solar to remain affordable even if the SCC guts Virginia’s net metering program.

But, this being Virginia, the legislation making its way through committee calls only for pilot programs that utilities design and largely control, although they will be voluntary for participants. After 2028, however, the SCC may create permanent programs. SB1100 passed the Senate 22-18. HB2346 passed the House 71-27.

The third bill in the package, HB2356 from Del. Candi Munyon King, establishes an apprenticeship program to help develop a clean energy workforce, and requires participants to be paid prevailing wages. This bill is more politically divisive than the first two, and it passed the House only on a party-line vote. A companion bill passed the Senate on a party-line vote as well. With Republicans unified in opposition, we are likely to see amendments or a veto from the governor.

A couple of other bills seek to address the costs of interconnecting small-scale solar facilities, including those on schools and government buildings. After Dominion Energy changed its rules in late 2022, customers found the cost of connecting solar facilities to the distribution grid was suddenly so high as to make it impossible to pursue projects in the affected size range.

HB2266 from Del. Kathy Tran, D-Springfield, requires the SCC to approve upgrades to the distribution system that are needed to accommodate grid-connected solar — a safeguard designed to prevent the utility from larding on costs. The utility must then spread the costs across all projects that benefit from the expanded capacity. This strikes me as a pretty elegant solution to the interconnection muddle. HB2266 passed the House 57-41.

SB1058 from Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, originally would have simply exempted public schools from interconnection costs. It was amended to look like Tran’s bill and then passed the Senate 21-18.

Finally, a bill from Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, would allow local governments to include in their land development ordinances a requirement that certain non-residential applicants install solar on a portion of a parking lot. HB2037 passed the House on a 64-32 vote and will now go to the Senate Committee on Local Government.

 

This article was originally published in the Virginia Mercury on February 3, 2025. It has been updated to reflect the most recent General Assembly votes.

Video: On MSNBC, 2025 VA Governor Candidate Abigail Spanberger Says the “implications of this chaos coming out of the White House…[are] absolutely dire” for Virginia and the Entire County

By
lowkell
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4

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger was on MSNBC last night talking about the importance of federal workers and the “absolutely dire” “implications of this chaos coming out of the White House.”

  • “Let me tell you who some of these people are, because they are Virginians, so many of them. They are the nurse at the VA who takes care of our nation’s heroes. They are the Social Security employer who ensures that our grandparents get their Social Security checks. They are the law enforcement officers who keep our country safe from terrorist threats the world over. They are the intelligence community members who spend every single day working to keep their neighbors safe. They are the air traffic controllers who work day in and day out to avoid tragedy. They are moms and dads and community members. And they are Virginians. And this is, yes, about them – and for them it’s a kitchen table issue. But the impact, the idea that we would have a president and a governor who’s standing by as said President says we’re going to push them out of the workforce? And this is a kitchen table issue in Virginia, but the impact is substantial across the entirity of the country.”
  •  “Talking about the Virginians who serve every day at CIA, and I’m a former CIA officer, I worked undercover for my entire time with the agency. These are people with language skills. These are people with specific well-honed skills, a focus and a devotion to national security. These are people who could choose to have jobs in the private sector that yes, are far more lucrative, but they are people who are driven to serve a mission. And year after year after year, not only do they bring their skills and their talents to the cause, to the mission of keeping the American people safe, but they learn and build upon those skills. You do not become an intelligence officer overnight, just as those who were investigating everything from terrorism to bank robberies to large-scale fraud cases learn that skill overnight.”
  • “And so the reality is that what is happening the chaos that we are seeing out of Washington, the chaos coming out of this Administration, it is, yes, impactful to the Virginians that I have served and look forward to serving again as Governor, but it is impactful to Americans across the country.”
  • “The thing about the intelligence community is ideally, when things are going right, you never know what they’re doing.”
  • “As I’ve been traveling across Virginia in my campaign for Governor, from Southwest Virginia to Hampton Roads, this past weekend, Southwest the weekend before, this is an issue that people have brought to me. The reality is community health centers, they serve communities from the most rural parts of Virginia, across the entirety of our state. They deliver healthcare in places where people need it. And what we are seeing is there are at this point, currently by the numbers, more than a hundred health centers in Virginia that don’t know how they’re going to keep their staff on, they have not received the funding that they need. And the implications of this chaos coming out of the White House it is dire, it is absolutely dire. And this is the impact we are seeing here in Virginia. I’m hearing about it in every corner of our Commonwealth. And the sad reality is I know that it’s happening across the rest of the country as well.”

Friday News: “Catastrophic” Cuts to USAID; “Trump’s blitz to expand his power is direct threat to democracy”; “Musk’s Revolutionary Terror”; “Trump’s ‘Puppet Master’, Russ Vought, Confirmed to Lead OMB”; “DOGE Staffer Resigns Over Racist Posts”

By
lowkell
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23

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, February 7.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) Publishes Open Letter To Federal Employees Weighing “Deferred Resignation”

By
lowkell
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11

From Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)’s office; also, see below for video of his remarks last night at the Arlington County Democratic Committee’s February meeting (at which, among other things, he called out Elon Musk as a “neo-Nazi” who’s acting completely lawlessly):

Beyer Publishes Open Letter To Federal Employees Weighing “Deferred Resignation”

February 6, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Don Beyer, who represents a Northern Virginia congressional district with one of the largest concentrations of federal employees in the country, published an open letter today to federal workers as they weigh the administration’s so-called “deferred resignation” offer. He wrote:

Dear Federal Employees,

I write as you face a career decision, that I know must be stressful and overwhelming, in the offer of so-called deferred resignation from federal civil service.

I am not a lawyer, financial planner, or career advisor, and cannot tell you what to do. But I can offer my empathy and perspective on the choice that faces you. As someone who grew up in a family of civil servants, pursued public service, and represents over 70,000 federal employees, I respect and value your service to the country.

This is a hard moment, and what is happening to you is frightening and unfair.

You can see what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing. The hiring freeze, Schedule F, the mass firings, the cancellation of work arrangements and collective bargaining agreements, and the emails and statements insulting you and your work – all are designed to demoralize you, fill your workplace with chaos and fear, and get you to quit.

Deferred resignation is designed to tempt you, but there are major reasons for concern.

First, the Administration says they can rescind this offer after it is accepted and stop paying you, which would leave you with little or no recourse.

Next, the legality of these offers is dubious. They are written by people who clearly don’t know the law or understand how the government works. They promise pay through September even though funding has only been appropriated through March. As you know, that’s not how this works.

Finally, to accept this offer, you must trust that Elon Musk and Donald Trump will keep their word. They both have extensive track records of dishonesty. Their emails are intentionally deceptive, and they are forcing you to make this choice on an arbitrarily rushed timeline – a longtime tactic of scammers and con artists. I do not trust them.

Only you know what is the best choice for you. If you are concerned about your job security and think taking this offer is the lesser evil, there is no shame in that.

But you also know best what will happen if the vital services you provide are downsized, eliminated, or put in the hands of unqualified, inexperienced political flunkies.

You know how important your work is, and however dark this moment feels, your dedication, expertise, and patriotism ARE valued and appreciated, more than you know.

I will not stop fighting for you and for the federal employees who choose to serve the American people, and there are many others who will have your back.

You are not alone, and America needs you more than ever.

Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says “How far this Grand Old Party has come from the lofty and noble sentiments of its founder, when it is putting at the head of the federal workforce somebody whose desire is to traumatize federal workers!”

By
lowkell
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4

Per his office, “Senator Tim Kaine join[ed] his colleagues in holding the Senate floor all night in opposition to the confirmation of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget nominee Russ Vought.” See below for video of Sen. Kaine’s 35-minute speech, in which he singled out Vought’s stated desire to “traumatize” federal workers. As Kaine asked, “Who talks like that?” Sen. Kaine then talked for a while about the work of dedicated, patriotic, hardworking federal employees – including those who shared their stories with him – and “about what having a traumatized workforce means.” Sen. Kaine also related how upset, anxious, upset, depressed, scared, etc. federal workers are at this point.

In short, federal workers – who did absolutely nothing wrong and a lot of things right! – are now “under siege” by the Trump/Musk assault on them, and it’s absolutely disgusting. As Sen. Kaine said, “An intentional strategy of traumatizing federal employees produces stories like this.” Kaine also notes: “And the thing about it is, Russell Vought was not only the architect of the funding freeze, but now he and others are responsible for following the court order, for god’s sake! The court order said they had to resume payments…these are appropriated funds…there’s no legal authority for [the president] to hold them back…the Administration won’t even follow a court order!” So, Sen. Kaine concluded:

“…under these circumstances, there is no way that I or any of my colleagues can stand here and cast a yes vote for somebody who has declared their intention is to traumatize federal employees…Who talks like that? Who talks like that? That is the professed goal of this individual who has been nominated this most-important post, and there is no circumstance under which I can cast a yes vote for someone harboring that kind of resentment….Abraham Lincoln would NEVER have thought to say, ‘I want to traumatize you, I want you to not go to work because you are viewed as the villain.’  How far this Grand Old Party has come from the lofty and noble sentiments of its founder, when it is putting at the head of the federal workforce somebody whose desire is to traumatize federal workers!”

Exactly. Now, we just need a few Republicans to show some courage and…oh yeah, we’re screwed. 🙁

UPDATE 11:16 am – The following is from Sen. Kaine’s office…

“My colleagues have spoken on the floor about a particular statement of Mr. Vought’s that I examined him about fairly aggressively during the Budget Committee Hearing. In the course of a speech, he said, ‘I want federal employees to be traumatized. I want to put them in trauma. I want them to come to work—to not want to come to work—because they know that they are increasingly viewed as the villain. Now, who talks like that? I mean, who talks like that? Is there a single manager or leader or organizational chief that we admire who believes that their mission, their happiness, their glee, their purpose is to make their workforce feel traumatized? No we would never celebrate a leader of that kind,” said Kaine.

“What I want to do in my time on the floor tonight is talk a little bit about these federal employees and what having a traumatized workforce means… What I’ve heard from Virginians is just in the week since the funding pause order went into place—something that was masterminded by Russell Vought—federal employees. Yesterday, I decided after hearing stories from federal employees, to launch a website, a resource where federal employees could share with anonymity guaranteed… I thought what I would do tonight is, I’ve just taken 18 of these stories, from the federal employees that have just once in in the last 24 hours, of the hundreds that have been submitted, and I just want to read some to you, to tell you about who these people are who Mr. Vought wants to be traumatized. Who these people are that Mr. Vought wants to personally make feel as if they are the villains,” Kaine continued.

Then, Kaine shared various stories he has collected from federal workers about how the Trump Administration’s actions have harmed them and threatened their ability to deliver essential services for the American people, including:

  • A federal employee working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) who wrote, “After two extremely painful miscarriages, I am now 34 weeks pregnant with my first child. Since my husband works as a lawyer for the EPA, what should have been a joyful time in our lives now feels like a dystopian hellscape and we are very afraid for our future and financial security. We are just hoping to have health insurance at this point for when I give birth but even that feels uncertain. I swore an oath and believe in the work that USAID does. I believe that it makes American stronger, safer, and more prosperous, as Secretary Rubio is calling for, and I will supporting the Agency until they boot me from the system. God help us all.”
  • A federal employee working for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who explained, “I am married and pregnant. I am the breadwinner. A woman. I am a homeowner. I pay taxes. I took an oath and I love my job. The daily fear tactics and targeting of federal employees has uprooted my life. I no longer feel safe going on any kind of family vacation, making any big purchases or doing anything because everyday I wonder will I have a job.”
  • A federal employee working for the National Science Foundation (NSF) who said, “The opportunity to give back and support the next generation of U.S. based scientists was a dream fulfilled, and I am terrified that I will be fired as soon as Friday with no protections or severance. The fair compensation and flexible schedule let’s my spouse work as a teacher, and she is so great at her job. But that will not pay the mortgage.”
  • A federal employee working for USAID who warned, “The attack on USAID lacks intelligence and foresight. China and Russia are filling the vacuum, outspending the US and deepening partnerships with our allies, who feel abandoned. This is creating permanent damage, and undoing decades of progress in a few days. This does the opposite of making America stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
  • A federal employee working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who explained, “These last few weeks have been hell for us federal workers. I come to work with a pit in my stomach. I am a probationary employee, so will probably be the first to go during a RIF. They have left us in the dark while constantly terrorizing us with threatening, passive aggressive messages, and half legal deals to resign. I fear for my job, but I fear more for my country.”
  • A federal employee working for the U.S. Department of Transportation who wrote, “I am frightened about my position. I’m a single income household and am convinced no one has my back. Congress has been pretty much silent, and the news has gained very little traction nationwide.”
  • A federal employee working for the U.S. Department of Defense who said, “As soon as this administration took office it felt like federal workers were under siege. They began with their flurry of executive orders and memos, they put Elon Musk (whom no one elected, whom is not a federal employee but yet has huge contracts for other areas with the government) in charge of “handling” the potential mass layoffs of federal workers.”
  • A federal employee working at the General Services Administration who explained, “…the disregard for union contracts is deeply concerning and undermines the commitments made to the workforce. Many of my talented and hardworking colleagues have been living in fear for weeks, facing uncertainty they do not deserve. This unlawful mistreatment not only undermines their dedication but also creates an environment of instability and anxiety that no employee should have to endure.”
  • A federal employee working at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who wrote, “My husband and I are both federal employees and we are both on probation. We also have student loan debts and under the public service loan forgiveness program. If we lose our jobs because we are on probation, we will lose the ability to have our payments to [Public Service Loan Forgiveness] counted, we will not be able to pay for childcare and we will lose our apartment.”
  • A federal employee working at DHS who warned, “truly believe a strong, healthy workforce of civilian servants is vital for a strong, healthy America. Our government has a duty to protect its citizens. This – to me – includes making sure peoples basic needs are met, be it healthcare, food, housing, education, etc. The private sector is not taking on this obligation.”
  • A federal employee who said, “I’ve served under different administrations, Republican and Democrat, and been proud to do so… The last 2 weeks have been a nightmare.”
  • A federal employee who wrote, “Since inauguration, times have been hell for us because every day is loaded with uncertainty regarding the future state of our contract, work, and our federal counterparts we work daily with. To this day, every work day is filled with dread and anxiety.”
  • A federal contractor working for USAID who explained, “In the past week, I have experienced near everyone in my company get placed on furlough. Beyond the fact that we were all working to make international development more impactful, and the fact that the US Company we have invested so much time in may never come back from this, we are all without salary and uncertain for the future.”
  • A federal employee working for a small independent agency who wrote, “I am a probationary employee, meaning my name is on a short list to fire. I was hired under Schedule A — persons with disabilities, so my name is on a list. I feel like I am being threatened by the very institutions that were created to safeguard the principles of truth, compassion, respect…”
  • A federal employee who wrote, “Today, I woke up to an email saying we had a restraining order, tied to Trump’s EOs, that would limit how we’d disburse our grants. Since the EOs were vaguely defined to begin with, this could be a witch hunt for all kinds of programs and grants we give out.”
  • A federal employee who said, “I’m a senior human resource professional in the Department of the Interior. I’m on daily calls with Departmental HR leaders who receive direction from OPM. Today leadership mentioned that their coordination was with DOGE “employees” rather than with actual OPM employees. These DOGE employees have full access to our USA Staffing hiring system, which includes personally identifiable information for ALL applicants to any position in DOI. It is unclear what kind of clearance these individuals have, if any, and what authority they have to even access this system.”

Another one, from an HHS employee:

“After working first as a contractor, I transitioned to a competitive career permanent position. It’s taken me years to get to this point. After graduating with a bachelor and master’s degree, I faced competition from people returning to work after having been laid off during a recession. I’m married and pregnant. I’m the breadwinner, a woman, a homeowner. I pay taxes. I took an oath and I love my job. The daily fear tactics and targeting of federal employees has uprooted my life. I no longer feel safe going on a vacation, making purchases or big purchases or doing anything, because every day I wonder if I’ll have a job. What’s happening is wrong? I’m pregnant with my first child. I didn’t do anything wrong! What did I do wrong to deserve this? Working for the federal government is a dream. I was sold an American dream – graduate from High School, go to college, get an advanced degree, get married, buy a home, have a baby, all in that order. I did everything I was supposed to do and now myself and over a million other people are caught up in a political firestorm that we didn’t ask for. Tell me why am I being punished? What did I do wrong? When will they be satisfied? When we kill ourselves from depression for not being able to provide for our families? I suffer from anxiety and depression already. I can tell you, this is enough to push a regular person over the edge. What more for somebody who battles with their mental health? Why does no one care? Why should what I earn be ripped away from me? Why do millions deserve for our worlds to fall apart? Every day my mind goes through what is happening and all the consequences that could fall upon me. It’s unsafe for my health, my baby’s health and my family. I ask for compassion. And I want people to know that we’re hard workers, we are regular people, we are humans who are employed by the federal government. Please do something!”

Thursday News: “Trump rescinds $4B in US pledges for UN climate fund” as “Earth Sets Another Heat Record”; “The Madness of Donald Trump”; “Republicans Lose Their Minds After Democrats Try to Subpoena Elon Musk”; “Youngkin joins Trump, backs order meant to ban trans women from women’s sports”

By
lowkell
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16

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, February 6. Good to see pro-democracy/anti-authoritarian folks starting to get out in the streets and peacefully protest. Also, it looks like local Democratic committee meetings in Arlington and Chesterfield this week have been PACKED, as have town halls held by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08), Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07), Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10), etc. – another excellent sign; let’s keep it going!

Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says “I thought the pace of assault was pretty heavy last week. If anything, it’s picked up this week.”

By
lowkell
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29

See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press availability this afternoon – lots to talk about, that’s for sure!

  • “I thought the pace of assault was pretty heavy last week. If anything, it’s picked up this week.”
  • “Even my friend Marco Rubio, who is now Secretary of  State, when he was in the Senate advocated for increasing federal relief funding. We often talk about Sudan, where there’s more people die every day than Ukraine and Gaza combined, and yet we spent a year trying to open up relief to folks under assault and we’ve now even got literally medicine rotting – American paid for medicine rotting – because we’ve cut off all of that assistance. I believe it’s illegal. I believe it is morally wrong. It is also against our national security. And we’re going to continue to put as as much pressure as possible to try to bring some sunlight to this process.”
  • “Elon Musk and his gang should not be defunding programs by name on the basis of a tweet. And unfortunately, that seems to be where we’re headed…what appears to be, in the the press, a 25-year-old with no experience potentially manipulating the Treasury payment files and we can’t get an answer on that yet “
  • “We’ve seen this buyout offer put out to our federal employees, which I believe is illegal. And let me assure you, there’s no money the budget. Matter of fact, our funding for the federal government runs out March 14th, so federal employees who take this sham offer have no assurance that they’ll get paid…” 
  • “Back on the national security side, this again I believe illegal, non-paid-for offer went out to all the CIA employees. And it just boggles the mind…I’m sure Elon Musk and his crowd don’t know that it takes a year and a half to get a CIA clearance to go into the agency. It takes years to be trained. To somehow offer across-the-board buyout offer will weaken the United States of America real time…”
  • “I appeal to folks across the state, if you are community leader or other people need to stand up and speak out. I hear from some local leaders, I hear from businesses, well if they just keep their heads low, maybe this will pass by. This is not a time to keep your heads low. This is such an indiscriminate attack on rule of law, on our nation’s payment systems, on our nation’s privacy and our nation’s law enforcement, that if you’ve got a time to raise your voice, it’s now “
  • “Remember we’re talking about Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, who’s calling for eliminating these foreign aid programs, which frankly the whole foreign aid budget is a fraction of his personal net worth. Elon Musk who has ties to China – his largest Tesla factory is there, he gets most of the batteries from China. He’s never said a bad word about Chinese leadership, yet he’s criticized American and European leadership virtually on a daily basis. For us not to know who are working on this DOGE task force, it violates every operating principle around keeping our nation’s secrets safe, about trying to protect the payment flows, the idea that they are in looking at all of the Treasury payments down to the individual level…”
  • “Where is the leadership of the banking community to say, we don’t want the payment system of America being manipulated? Let’s get these DOGE kids up in front; they ought to be identified, we ought to know their records, we ought to know if they are have even classification review. And if they don’t want to do that entirely, they ought to at least do it in a classified setting. But we’ve got nothing. This is a group of folks run amuck. And we are all going to be tested now, whether we’re going to stand by rule of law or going to allow…potentially the dismantling of  our national government.”
  • “I think that men and women who serve our country in arms, in the defense world, the fact is they are more representative of minorities than the general population. I know in many cases our African-American population is about 10%, 11% in the country, I believe that in the military in some branches of the service it gets as high as 20%. We’ve seen for example in the Latino community, a huge number of folks who sign up as defenders of our country in the military, the Army being a…path to the middle class. I think it is disrespectful and outrageous that Donald Trump is trying to change American history and let’s face it, whitewash it, by taking out respect for Dr King or recognizing the contribution of  a whole lot of folks across our country that from different backgrounds that make up our Armed Forces. I think this does nothing to strengthen our country; if anything, that kind of effort to whitewash history I think will weaken our country…we’re having a hard enough time as it is recruiting the right men and women to to do these jobs. If it appears that  the military, which in many ways was a path towards the middle class, particularly for minorities in America, is now not going to be as friendly to those Americans, I think it weakens our country “
  • “I can tell you the amount of pressure that has been brought to bear on my Republican Senate friends who were willing to vote against or thought about voting against the Bobby Kennedys or the Tulsi Gabbards or the Russell Voughts, it has been unprecedented. And at some point I hope some of them will speak out with the level of detail that I know, I think people would no matter how strong a Republican or MAGA supporter you may be, I think people would be repulsed at the kind of threats that are being made.”
  • ” I think it’s important for people to speak out and speak up. I hope that the demonstrations though will focus on where the challenge is – let’s convince some of our Republican friends to stand up…They had a lot of folks protesting at Tim Kaine and my office the other day. I hope they’ll protest at Republican members….”
  • “The only way we stop this lawless action is to speak up and speak out and say this is not why Donald Trump got hired. He got hired promising that he was going to try to lower grocery prices. And instead, he’s attacking our workforce, he’s attacking programs for the most vulnerable, he’s going off and making irresponsible claims that somehow America is going to pick up the cost and potentially send troops to Gaza  – that’s wacky. All that would do is let off the hook wealthy countries in that region like Saudi Arabia and the  who ought to help on the rebuilding, let alone what it would say to the rest of the world about the 2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza. This is the height of irresponsibility. If this is what you signed up for, then you’re getting it. If you signed up for what you thought was going to be a focus on lowering inflation, bringing down grocery costs and making America safer, this is not what is playing out and we’re only on day 18.”

Video: In Richmond, 100s of Protesters Chant “‘Stop the Coup’ in protest of Donald Trump’s flurry of executive actions and Elon Musk’s unprecedented access to federal government systems”

By
lowkell
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0

Great job by VCU Capital News Service/The Commonwealth Times reporter Andrew Kerley covering the rally earlier today at the Virginia state capitol, where “hundred of protesters [were] chanting ‘stop the coup’ in protest of Donald Trump’s flurry of executive actions and Elon Musk’s unprecedented access to federal government systems.” Also, check out Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington) talking about how he’s the “first Latino Democrat ever elected to the VA House of Delegates [and] I have 14 family members who are going to be deported if this president’s unconstitutional orders are allowed to move forward.” Del. Lopez also noted that Trump’s assault on federal workersis jeopardizing “jobs and livelihoods and homes…because of this president’s illegal acts.” Just appalling, and all the more reason to fight back, including peaceful public protest.

 

 

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