Washington, DC – Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) released the following statement on the Trump Administration’s mass job cuts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), firing thousands of federal workers, including many MD-08 residents: 
 
“Today is a gloomy and painful day in Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District. When employees arrived at work at HHS and many of its subagencies this morning, they faced long lines stretching down the block. Emails firing thousands of workers across HHS had been sent out starting at 5:00 AM. Long lines formed because security staff were required to check to see if each employee still had a job and access to the office or if they had been a victim of the early-morning purge and were forbidden to enter. 
 
“A great many of these fired workers are my constituents. Numerous HHS agencies with headquarters or offices in the Eighth District have been hit, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

“Tens of thousands of my constituents devote their careers to public service. They go to work every day to improve our country, often passing up more lucrative opportunities in the private sector. They are patriots and public servants, and we should thank them for their service, not vilify them and dismiss them from their jobs before the sun comes up.

“The Trump Administration, which sacked 18 inspectors general, is not rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. It is dismantling critical government services that Americans across the country rely upon and inflicting confusion and heartbreak on federal employees. Thousands of workers have lost their livelihood and our nation’s health agencies are now in chaos. If Vladimir Putin had taken over our government, he could not have done a better job than this destroying our government. 
 
“My thoughts are with the dedicated public servants wrestling with the immense loss of their jobs and I resolve to keep fighting every day on their behalf. My constituents deserve to get their jobs back and the American people deserve a government that works for the people, not against them.” 
 
Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Rep. Raskin has released numerous resources for communities targeted by the Trump-Vance Administration, including launching a webpage compiling information and services, convening webinars for federal workers, immigrants and LGBTQIA+ Americans, holding a telephone town hall for the Eighth Congressional District, and submitting a Privacy Act request to DOGE. 
 
You can stay updated on Rep. Raskin’s work at his Congressional office and House Judiciary Committee Democratic websites,

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