Supporting Federal Workers

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I am here today to stand with our Federal workers and civil servants and to tell them that we will fight these illegal actions.

The Trump administration is treating our Federal workforce as if they are the enemy. These are regular Americans who work important jobs all over the country, not just in D.C., but in all of our districts.

In fact, 85 percent of the nonpartisan civil servants are spread around the country. Vermont is home to 8,000 of these Federal workers. They are part of the 2 million Federal workers who operate our national parks. They are scientists at the FDA. They work at hospitals, at NASA, and they protect our national security. In fact, 70 percent work on behalf of our national security and defense.

I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned that the illegal purge of our civil servants at the Department of Justice and at the FBI will lead to another 9/11 terrorist attack.

I ask Americans: Do we really want to put our Nation at risk so that billionaires can get a massive tax cut?

Follow the money. What this is about is firing our Federal workforce to fund tax cuts for billionaires. Don't be fooled by what is happening here. It is about the money. Follow the money.

Our Federal workers are civil servants because they are here to serve the people. They are hired on a nonpartisan basis because they keep our country running, and they keep us safe.

What is happening is an illegal takeover of our government. By locking them out of their jobs, firing them illegally, and bullying them out of a job, Trump and Musk are trying to create chaos and confusion. It will harm Americans, not just the people who are being fired illegally, but it will harm all of those Americans in our districts who seek services from these workers.

None of this is about making our government work better for Americans. It is a well-worn tactic used by authoritarians and dictators like Orban in Hungary and Bolsonaro in Brazil. They do it to destroy government services so that they create chaos and they create confusion, and then we turn against each other.

This administration is using chaos and cruelty to amass power and wealth, not for us and not for Americans, but only for them.

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