Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) argued that while she agrees with President Trump’s administration goal to downsize the federal government, the current mass firings of workers across several departments and agencies are doing “more harm than good.”
Murkowski said that “dozens” of Alaskans, possibly over 100 “are being fired as part of the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force order for the federal government,” a development that, in her view, will hinder the country’s preparedness for natural disasters and limit energy production.
“Many of these abrupt terminations will do more harm than good, stunting opportunities in Alaska and leaving holes in our communities. We can’t realize our potential for responsible energy and mineral development if we can’t permit projects,” the senator wrote in a Friday night post on the social platform X.
“We will be less prepared to manage summer wildfires if we can’t support those on the front lines,” the Alaskan senator added. “Our tourism economy will be damaged if we don’t maintain our world-class national parks and forests.”
Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have steered a push to reduce the size of the federal government, utilizing buyout programs and orchestrating layoffs of thousands of employees in the name of boosting efficiency and cutting unnecessary expenditures.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has ordered agencies to fire workers who are on probationary status — one to two years into the job, depending on where they work.
The directive is already making an impact, the Department of Veterans Affairs terminated 1,000 workers this week. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior fired 2,300 employees and the Health and Human Services Department is looking to sack 5,200 workers.
Other agencies have also cut down on personnel. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got rid of 388 probationary employees, The Hill reported. At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), over 100 workers lost their jobs.
Murkowski said the rapid pace of firing is disgruntling federal workers and will not bolster efficiency
“I share the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government, but this approach is bringing confusion, anxiety, and now trauma to our civil servants—some of whom moved their families and packed up their whole lives to come here,” she said on Friday.
“Indiscriminate workforce cuts aren’t efficient and won’t fix the federal budget, but they will hurt good people who have answered the call to public service to do important work for our nation,” the GOP senator added.
The Alaska lawmaker said she and her staff are in contact with department officials and agencies, looking to find out the “impact of these terminations.”
“Our goal is to forestall unnecessary harm—for people and Alaska’s federal priorities—but the response so far has been evasive and inadequate,” Murkowski said.
