{"id":72459,"date":"2025-05-01T14:14:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72459"},"modified":"2025-05-01T14:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:14:35","slug":"congresswoman-waters-senator-merkley-launch-new-effort-to-boost-congress-oversight-of-trumps-mass-firings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72459","title":{"rendered":"Congresswoman Waters, Senator Merkley Launch New Effort to Boost Congress\u2019 Oversight of Trump\u2019s Mass Firings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Washington, D.C.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0As the Trump Administration continues\u00a0mass firings of federal employees, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, today introduced first-of-its-kind legislation to strengthen Congress\u2019 authority to protect workers and override federal staffing cuts implemented without consultation.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Reduction in Force (RIF)<\/em>\u00a0Review Act\u00a0empowers Congress\u00a0to overrule any president\u2019s workforce cuts at all federal agencies,\u00a0including the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Health and Human Services. The bill\u00a0makes RIF plans subject to the\u00a0<em>Congressional Review Act\u00a0(CRA)<\/em>\u00a0and bolsters Congressional oversight of the executive branch\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDonald Trump and co-President Elon Musk are engaged in a lawless and reckless restructuring of the federal workforce. By firing thousands of federal workers, they are dismantling the infrastructure supporting Social Security, veterans\u2019 healthcare, and our entire government. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are sitting by and refusing to perform their duty under the Constitution to provide a check on this President. That\u2019s why I\u2019m proud to partner with Senator Merkley to introduce the\u00a0<em>Reduction in Force Review Act,<\/em>\u00a0which will restore Congress\u2019 role in overseeing major changes to the federal workforce. Agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which I\u2019ve been fighting to protect as Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, protect ordinary Americans from financial scams and predatory lenders. If Republicans want to declare open season on working families, they should at least have to vote on it,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Waters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, led the Senate introduction of the\u00a0<em>RIF Review Act.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump and his unelected billionaire sidekick Elon Musk\u2019s\u00a0reckless decision to fire tens of thousands of federal employees threatens the critical services that families,\u00a0veterans, seniors, and children\u00a0rely on,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Merkley.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThis isn\u2019t about fiscal responsibility\u2014it\u2019s\u00a0about cruelly shifting resources away from those who need them most to the very richest among us.\u00a0Gutting resources\u00a0and staff\u00a0from vital programs is not resulting in better services\u00a0or increased efficiency, but\u00a0is instead causing pain for folks in Oregon and across the country.\u00a0Congress must step in\u00a0and\u00a0exercise its oversight\u00a0of\u00a0the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The<em>\u00a0RIF Review Act\u00a0<\/em>makes an agency\u2019s reduction in force plan subject to a vote in both houses of Congress under the\u00a0CRA\u00a0process and enhances existing RIF reporting requirements to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The specific reasons for the reduction in force;<\/li>\n<li>The anticipated impact of the reduction in force on the employees and operations of the federal agency;<\/li>\n<li>Any alternatives to the reduction in force that the federal agency considered, including the reasons that the federal agency rejected those alternatives;<\/li>\n<li>A summary of the consultations that the federal agency has held with employees of the federal agency who will be affected by the reduction in force (or representatives of those employees); and<\/li>\n<li>A summary of how the reduction in force will impact employees of the Federal agency who are veterans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition to Waters and Merkley, the\u00a0<em>RIF Review Act\u00a0<\/em>is cosponsored by U.S. Representatives Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Doris O. Matsui (CA-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), and Jill N. Tokuda (HI-02) and U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).<\/p>\n<p>The<em>\u00a0RIF Review Act\u00a0<\/em>is endorsed by the AFL-CIO, SEIU, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), and National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s reckless attempt to dismantle our government without congressional approval threatens vital services Americans depend on every day\u2014from caring for veterans and safeguarding public health, to protecting our environment and maintaining national security. This illegal power grab would gut federal agencies, disrupt communities nationwide, and put critical public services at risk. AFGE is proud to support the\u00a0RIF Review Act\u00a0to protect not just the patriotic public servants we represent, but the integrity of American government and the essential services that our nation deserves,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDOGE\u2019s illegal firings are an attack on federal workers and on the communities across the country who rely on them. Veterans will be left waiting even longer for care, and the workers who ensure our food is safe and water is clean have been fired. If these cuts are not overturned, we\u2019ll see seniors waiting for delayed Social Security checks, and kids and teachers going without vital school programs. The\u00a0<em>RIF Review Act<\/em>\u00a0is critical to stopping these reckless cuts and restoring the jobs that make these programs work. We urge Congress to act now: stand with working people and support this bill or let the Trump administration and an unelected billionaire dismantle the essential services that millions of Americans count on,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis administration&#8217;s war on the services that Americans rely on is despicable,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Doreen Greenwald, National President of the NTEU<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cThese illegal mass firings not only harm thousands of dedicated civil servants across the country, but also millions of taxpayers who need these services and local communities who will suffer from increased unemployment. I applaud Senator Merkley and Congresswoman Waters for their leadership in ensuring that Congress can step in and stop these efforts before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0As the Trump Administration continues\u00a0mass&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72460,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72459\/revisions\/72460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}