Musk firings of federal employees could bring economic devastation to Maryland

A little more than a month after President Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second non-consecutive term the new administration has lit a fire underneath the Washington bureaucracy the likes of which have not been seen in nearly a century.

Federal agencies like Department of Education, FEMA, and USAID are being gutted.

Mass firings are taking place at agencies charged with critical national security functions, including the CIA and DoD.

Both current and former federal employees have taken to the online discussion board Reddit to voice their frustration.

Frosty-Collection-76: “We just had a meeting about employees posting memos and meeting topics on Reddit and were told to stop “leaking” information. DONT STOP, the people deserve to know the information. EDIT!!! 2/13/25 VHA/VBA VRA hires within their initial 1-year probationary period (regardless of tenure) were terminated tonight.”

Nullordo: “28 years old, GS-13. Worked my ass off to get here, started as a GS-3 intern in 2018. I was promised job security and a proper work-life balance. I had aspirations of being a TSP Millionaire. Well anyway, that’s all about to be gone. There’s a good chance I get laid off this week with the impending GSA layoffs. I will be back, private sector here I come. Thank you all. Farewell GSA.”

Ancient_Animator4271: “My department head at the VA instructed us, as did our director, to fill out the email from Mush face and his band of Lord of the Flies rejects. They stated that you would need to CC your department head and supervisor on the email. I didn’t do it. Hours later my department head Teams messaged me asking if I responded as they are to take a toll of who did and who doesn’t not intend to. I let him know that I won’t be. I know that I am only 2 years and 7 months from 20 years of federal service (including my military time) and this throws everything off if they fire me, but I don’t care. I cannot and will not bow down the these domestic terrorists. It is not in me to bend the knee. Honestly, if they do fire me it will give me a huge break from their BS and the lies that the civilian public believes about we federal employees. I will have to work longer but maybe it’s time I see what the private sector is like…who knows. My give-a-damn is truly busted, I’m just ready for a nap.”

u/Icy_Cabinet7278: “No details just an email hey guys a RIF is about to happen. Email sent at around 6:00 PM by the acting administrator. He did not specify what business units would be impacted. This is a cruel email to send after business hours, and not having any further details in it makes it worse. As a warning to other agencies- GSA has been ordered to cut 50% of its costs. Training and travel have been halted. These cuts will be replicated at other agencies and GSA is being used as a way to develop best practices for this.”

SnooPredictions2106: “It was fun while it lasted. I finally had to do it, resignation submitted. One of the most painful things I have had to do in my career. It was a dream job with a dream agency. I had finished grad school a little bit ago and had a job hopped around for a bit trying to find the right place. I stumbled upon a pathways position in the federal government and couldn’t believe that I was selected. After the very lengthy process of onboarding, I made it. This is the job that I wanted to do forever. The job that not only myself but also my coworkers gave 110% at each day. The constant not knowing if I was safe or not from the layoffs, being told we were lazy, and the overall disrespect and hate… I couldn’t take it anymore. I told myself I wouldn’t take the DRP. They would either have to fire me, or I would leave on my own terms. After the many anxiety-ridden sleepless nights and the frequent panic attacks of that would happen if I needed to find a new position, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

And those are just a few of them.

200,000-plus federal workers have been fired

In the last few weeks, more than 200,000 federal jobs have been slashed and 75,000 federal employees have agreed to resign in exchange for buyouts as Tesla CEO and unofficial White House senior adviser Elon Musk-the world’s richest man looks for new ways to reduce federal largess and improve efficiency.

As the quotes indicate, the firings came without any type of warning.

To add insult to injury, Musk has emailed federal employees demanding they produce weekly progress reports although many government agencies have told employees not to respond. The Trump administration claimed 1 million workers replied but provided no evidence to support that number.

Musk associates had gained access to Treasury Department servers ahead of tax season.

That aroused considerable controversy on Capitol Hill and with state attorneys general, who sued and succeeded in getting a federal judge to block access.

This year’s tax season coincides with the firing of nearly 7,000 IRS employees.

Most of the employees were hired on a probationary basis and are not involved with income tax assessment.

There has been pushback to the firings.

On Tuesday, 21 members of Musk’s 65-strong DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team tenured their resignations in protest.

The Associated Press (AP) first reported the story and obtained a copy of their resignation letter.

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” they wrote. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.”

The Baltimore Post-Examiner reached out to Maryland Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks inquiring as to whether they will call for a congressional investigation into what the former DOGE members claimed they were asked to do.

The Post-Examiner is awaiting a response from the lawmakers.

The impact on Maryland 

In deep-blue Maryland, where Democrat Kamala Harris won 63% of the vote, resides about 160,000 federal employees which is about 8% of the state’s total workforce. So, mass layoffs could bring about economic devastation in Maryland.

No other jurisdiction has more federal employees as residents except for Washington, D.C.

With the GOP-controlled Congress considering significant budget cuts, more than just federal jobs are on the chopping block.

Nonprofit organizations that receive federal funding and social safety net programs such as Medicaid also are in jeopardy.

World-renowned medical institutions, such as Johns Hopkins-though privately owned-could be affected by these cuts as they rely heavily on federal funding to conduct living-saving research.

More than 60% of Marylanders said the administration’s plans to gut the federal workforce will “have a mostly negative impact” on the state, according to a Institute of Politics UMBC Poll released on Tuesday.

With the mass imposition of tariffs on imported goods and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants both on the table just as they were during the first Trump administration further economic pain could lie ahead.

Trump’s approval rating is at 45%, according to a recent Gallup poll, and Congress has an approval rating of just 29%, according to the poll.

Many red states are doubling down to emulate Trump’s policies.

But Democratic strongholds such as Maryland are doing their best to counter the administration’s policies.

This has earned both scorn and praise from the state’s lawmakers, begging the question: Are the Trump administration’s policies good for Maryland?

“The Trump administration’s policies on energy and the environment are really returning us to a degree of sanity,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, told the Post-Examiner. 

“We have been working really hard here in Maryland over the last couple of years to fight the electric vehicle mandate, which is simply unworkable. We have passed a lot of environmental legislation in Annapolis over the years acting as if Maryland, a state of six million people, can be the world’s leader on climate change mitigation. And by doing so, we are putting people in Maryland out of business.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the agency plans to roll back some of the emissions standards and rules for trucks that were put into place by the Biden administration.

Buckel said he strongly supports the idea of reducing the size of the federal government but has some reservations about how it is being done by the new administration.

“The way we are going about it is troublesome. You hear stories of people who are getting fired who you objectively might say: ‘I don’t know if we need to fire them. Maybe we need to trim that agency 5%, 10%, or 15%.’ “But we probably need to take a more significant look at it. It is hard to step into an organization as big as the federal government and really attempt to effectuate sweeping policy changes in 30 days.”

Buckel said Maryland’s economy may be too dependent on federal spending.

“It is challenging for us more so than it is for probably a lot of states-the Midwest, South, and the West Coast.”

Del. Brian Chisholm, an Anne Arundel County Republican, said he too would like to see a review and cut government agencies.

“I think every department should be looked at. Any fraud, waste, or abuse needs to be rooted out. Whether you like the current process or not can be debated. We cannot continue on this fiscal increase that we are seeing year after year, where our deficit is out of control. When that happens, it affects everything-whether it be inflation or energy. We have to put the reigns on spending. We have never had a revenue problem in the state or in the country. But we have a spending problem.”

Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat, said spending cuts at the federal level are hurting her constituents.

“The Trump-Musk administration has been devastating to my part of the state. The residents of Rockville and Gaithersburg have either lost their jobs or are nervous that they might be threatened with being laid off.”

Kagan said she is particularly concerned the loss of funding to non-profit organizations could hurt some of the most vulnerable Marylanders.

“If our food pantries, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, and literacy councils had to close their doors-our neighbors in need would really suffer. Our communities would be less well-off. The government would have to pick up the slack, which would mean increased taxes and fees. Some of the early moves that they (the Trump administration) has either made or tried making with the grant freeze or changing indirect costs…it is devastating to non-profits. People are already feeling the impact. So, we are playing defense with some of the legislation that we are considering this session.”