GOP senators 'begging for funds' as Trump’s mass layoffs imperil red states: 'Humbling turn of events'

19 February

A wide range of federal government agencies are being targeted for mass layoffs by the Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by SpaceX/Tesla/X.com CEO Elon Musk. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is being gutted, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) expects to suffer the same fate, and Trump proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education altogether. According to the Washington Post, as many as 200,000 federal government workers may lose their jobs.

The most vehement outcry against these layoffs is coming from Democrats, but according to Washington Post reporter Liz Goodman, some GOP lawmakers are worried as well.

In an article published on February 19, Goodwin reports, "Republican senators find themselves in an unusual position these days: begging Trump officials to release funds they themselves appropriated. Senators have, in recent days, made the case to Cabinet secretaries and other Trump officials to let money flow back into their states. They are trying to finagle exceptions to President Donald Trump's sweeping executive orders or cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service that freeze hundreds of billions of dollars, including money for farmers and infrastructure projects. That push comes as the (Trump) Administration has also sought to fire a wide swath of federal employees — some of whom live in red states."

Goodwin cites Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and two examples of GOP lawmakers who worry that the DOGE cuts are going too far.

Republicans who "praise the ultimate goal of streamlining the federal government" are urging the Trump Administration "to reconsider its cuts or pauses to federal grants that support biomedical research and labs, or for programs supporting Native American tribes." This, according to Goodwin, is a " humbling turn of events for a body that has traditionally prized its power of the purse."

"Trump campaigned on overturning traditional limits on his ability to cancel funding appropriated by Congress, saying he should be able to use a technique called 'impoundment' to reduce or eliminate spending," Goodwin explains. "He and his allies have been laying the groundwork for challenging restrictions on that power in court and have aggressively flouted Congress' power with potentially illegal freezes on spending. The use of impoundment could create a situation where lawmakers who are in good standing with the Trump Administration have a better shot at restoring their funds, posing a potential conflict of interest, experts said…. Murkowski said she's been lobbying 'pretty much all the departments' to restore frozen funding that's affecting her state — including the Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department and Agriculture Department."

Goodwin adds, "(Murkowski) has also asked the Trump Administration to exempt Native American tribes from freezes affected by an executive action targeting programs that promote diversity. Over the weekend, she slammed the Administration's responses to her on terminations of federal workers as 'evasive and inadequate.'"

Read the Washington Post's full article at this link.

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