Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan on Sunday mocked those raising alarms about the mass firings of thousands of federal workers.
Jordan, citing an article from The Washington Post which led with the firing of a locksmith from Yosemite National Park, said on “Fox News Sunday”: “That’s the best you can do?”
The Washington Post article in question last week cited the example of the dismissal of “the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms.” Jordan added: “The real question is, how do visitors get locked in restrooms? This is how ridiculous some of this is.”
The Post article did go on to catalog some broader issues at the nation’s national parks, such as issues for visitors at Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park and the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. “It’s chaos everywhere,” the Post quoted a former seasonal park ranger at Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve.
The Republican representative, a former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, defended the mass firings, saying that President Donald Trump is simply following through on his campaign promises.
“I think American voters like the intensity and the focus they have seen from 30-something days of this administration, going about doing the things he told the voters they are going to do, the things they were elected to do,” Jordan said.
Reports of firings have circulated widely in recent days. The U.S. Forest Service has seen 3,400 workers cut from their workforce, meaning wildfire prevention will be curtailed as the West grapples with a destructive fire season that has destroyed millions of acres in California.
The Pentagon plans to fire 5,400 civilian employees this week as the largest federal agency seeks to eliminate 8 percent of its civilian workforce.
The cuts — which could eventually extend to around 50,000 people — will gut the roster of civilians who have only been employed for one or two years and are still considered “probationary,” meaning the terminations aren’t tied to performance.
Among others, the Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Veterans Affairs, Small Business Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the General Services Administration have also initiated layoffs.
The VA, for instance, announced late Thursday the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees. The layoffs are expected to intensify in the coming days and weeks, according to officials in the White House and across agencies, as additional agencies finalize workforce reduction plans.
A Republican senator echoed Jordan’s defense of the Trump administration’s latest actions.
“I would tell you that the majority of the American people want to make sure their tax dollars are being used correctly. I don’t want anybody to lose their job. That’s the last thing we want,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But at the same time, any time you’re trying to secure this country, which a national security risk we have right now is our national debt. We have to make changes and we have to make it quickly.”
But another Republican senator urged “compassion” for members of the federal workforce.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk it’s: Please put a dose of compassion in this,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and be cruel to do it as well.”
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