Hundreds of federal civilian workers in Hawaii may be part of mass layoffs that began Friday by the White House amid a national government shutdown.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) made the estimate Friday in the absence of any public information on the size of the layoffs from the Trump administration.
A lack of specifics is fueling concern and criticism from Democrats in Congress, and fear among federal workers.
“The administration is purposely obscuring details both nationally and for Hawaii,” Case said in a statement.
Case said it appears that targeted employees are largely outside areas of defense and veterans affairs, instead focusing largely on employees who are currently furloughed because of no federal funding.
Out of roughly 25,000 federal employees in Hawaii that exclude military personnel working without pay, Case said about 4,000 are outside the protected areas, and that many agencies with furloughs have furlough rates of 50% or more.
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Case referred to the Trump administration layoffs as an “attempted firing,” and described them as very likely illegal because they don’t follow standard federal reduction-in-force laws and procedures, especially during a shutdown.
Some lawsuits already have been filed over the layoffs.
“They are intended to intimidate and punish any opposition, are outright cruel to federal workers nationally already furloughed or still working without pay, and if successful will further cripple critical government services including homeland security, natural resource protection, affordable housing, cybersecurity, health, education and tax collection,” Case said.
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) was communicating with federal unions and state officials Friday, but as of late afternoon had not heard of anyone receiving a
reduction-in-force notice.
“That being said, there is a lot of anxiety and fear, given how this Administration has indiscriminately issued termination notices, that heartless email notices could be coming,” Tokuda said in a
statement.
The New York Times reported that federal health, homeland security, education, energy and treasury workers received layoff notices Friday, citing agency officials, congressional aides and court documents.
Tokuda said President Donald Trump is weaponizing the government shutdown as an excuse to fire hard-working public servants.
“President Trump’s actions are a deliberate attack on our workers, their families, and the institutions meant to serve them,” she said. “We can’t allow Trump and congressional Republicans to keep dismantling our government from within. It’s time to get back to working for the people, not against them.”
Hawaii’s two other representatives in Congress, both Democrats, also criticized the administration.
“As Donald Trump and Republicans continue their dangerous government shutdown, they’re now sowing even more chaos by playing games with the lives of tens of thousands of committed federal employees in Hawaii, and millions more across the country,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said in a statement. “These RIFs are not only reckless, they’re lawless, and I’m encouraged to see they’re already being challenged in court.”
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz called
the layoff move illegal and unnecessary.
“Unfortunately, there have been multiple government shutdowns in the past, and there has never been a requirement to permanently lay anyone off,” he said in a statement. “There’s no reason to do that now. We should all stay focused on reopening the government and getting people back to work.”
