OPM, OMB memo sets off fresh round of concerns among Maryland Democrats

OPM, OMB memo sets off fresh round of concerns among Maryland Democrats

Protesters rally outside the U.S. Office of Personnel Management earlier this month to protest actions by the Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump administration’s rush to slash the size of the federal government continued Wednesday, with a memo directing agencies to draw up plans in the coming weeks for deep cuts to staff and to mission. (File photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A Trump administration demand that federal agencies start planning for “large scale” cuts is just more bad news for Maryland officials who say the state has already lost thousands of federal jobs in the weeks since Trump took office.

“I can say definitively we’re already at a job loss the size of a Ford plant closure in Michigan,” Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery) said Wednesday.

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Moon said the memo, and the whirlwind of actions in the little more than five weeks since President Donald Trump was sworn in, come as no surprise.

“Everything I’ve been signaling and saying this past week, on the floor and in private conversations, unfortunately, has been pointing to the obvious conclusion that the ‘wait and see’ period with the Trump administration is far over,” Moon said.

“They fully intend to move through, with the consent of Congress, a very radical agenda that threatens the core of Maryland’s tax base,” he said.

Maryland’s economy is heavily dependent on federal agencies, with roughly 160,000 federal jobs in the state. That does not include jobs at intelligence agencies like the National Security Administration or the countless companies and contractors that rely on federal work.

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While there is no official number of federal job losses to date, either locally or nationally, Moon has personally estimated Maryland’s toll to be “in the thousands.”

Many of those jobs include federal contractors in Maryland who have suddenly found themselves out of work, including some who contracted with the now-gutted U.S. Agency for International Development.

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A Maryland Department of Labor database, where companies have to post notice to their employees of coming layoffs, includes notifications of roughly 1,250 government-related jobs in recent weeks where workers face layoffs.

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the number of federal workers laid off. But a spokesperson for DAI Global LLC, which has furloughed 506 employees in the past month, said that it was forced into the move by cuts to USAID, with whom the company had contracts.

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The memo Wednesday from the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget outlines a process for making deep cuts to agencies, including staff cuts, the first phase of which is due March 13. The directive demands that agencies identify, among other things, a list of “all agency components and employees” whose work is not deemed essential by law or regulation and a list of the tools the agency plans to use to “achieve efficiencies.”

I can say definitively we’re already at a job loss the size of a Ford plant closure in Michigan.

– Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery)

The release of the memo came hours after the House on Tuesday pushed through a Trump-backed budget bill, leading Democrats to blast the Trump administration’s efficiency goals as disingenuous.

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“The richest man in the world and the most powerful men in American politics are co-opting cynicism and confusion to remake our government in their own corrupt image,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) said in a statement sent to Maryland Matters Wednesday

He said they are  “decimating public service, killing key public programs, jeopardizing Social Security and Medicare, and eliminating regulatory agencies that hold them accountable—all while queueing up massive tax breaks for their billionaire friends.”

Moon echoed the sentiment that federal cuts have been made in service of paying for Trump’s tax cuts.

“They’re literally adding trillions of dollars to the deficit, even while gutting government services … to give people like Elon Musk and billionaires a tax cut,” Moon said. “That is what the vote last night signals very clearly, and now OPM and the Trump administration are following up with very specific and detailed goals to cull the federal workforce.”

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Republicans, though, said they feel sympathy for anyone who loses their job, but that streamlining the federal government is a necessity.

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“The sheer size of the budget and debt is alarming,” Del. Jesse Pippy (R-Frederick) said Wednesday. “I mean, we are at trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. The spending has just increased … almost to an unsustainable amount. And I think most Americans understand how problematic that is.”

Pippy did acknowledge the “delicateness” of balancing the needs of federal workers in Maryland, and in his district, specifically, with a desire to be more efficient.

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While Democrats in Washington have been focused on battling Trump and his workforce cuts in court, their counterparts in the State House have begun exploring legislative options to mitigate the damage.

Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) has introduced a bill – coined the “Protect our Federal Workers Act” – that would open the door for Maryland to provide more financial assistance to federal workers suddenly out of a job. The bill would let the state use funds from the Catastrophic Event Account to ease the burden associated with mass layoffs and closures.

Moon promised that Democrats in Annapolis will pursue other legislative remedies as well, saying, “I expect you will hear much more soon.”

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