Democrats introduce bill forcing Trump administration to rehire fired veterans
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(WASHINGTON) — Democrats want to force President Donald Trump’s administration to rehire veterans who were laid off as part of large-scale efforts by Trump and Elon Musk to reshape the federal government and its workforce, according to information exclusive to ABC News.
Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Andy Kim of New Jersey plan to introduce the Protect Veteran Jobs Act in the Senate on Monday. The bill would compel the Trump administration to reinstate veterans impacted by recent mass layoffs, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by ABC News.
It would also require the Trump administration to provide a quarterly report to Congress on the number of veterans removed from the federal workforce — and the justification for their firing.
“Veterans who choose to continue their service to our country in the federal workforce deserve our utmost gratitude, but instead this Administration has kicked thousands of our heroes to the curb and left them without a paycheck,” Duckworth said in a statement. “The message of our bill is simple: Give our heroes their jobs back. If Republicans really care about our Veterans, they should stop enabling Trump and Musk’s chaos and support our legislation.”
In the coming weeks of floor activity and ahead of government funding votes, Democrats hope to get Republicans on the record over layoffs impacting a reliably Republican — and Trump-supporting — group of voters.
The party also attempted to draw attention to the firings by inviting veterans who lost their government jobs to Trump’s joint address to Congress on March 3.
Veterans make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce of more than 2 million civilian government employees, according to September data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Roughly 75,000 federal workers have accepted offers for deferred buyouts, and another roughly 20,000 government employees have been fired in the first months of Trump’s second term.
The Trump administration has not said how many veterans have been impacted by the cuts, though Democrats have estimated that several thousand veterans have been fired across the administration.
OPM has since directed some agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to rehire veteran workers and to exempt veterans and military spouses from other workforce policy changes.
But many veterans have still lost their jobs in recent weeks.
“You spend 10 years trying to defend your country in terms of honesty, integrity and justice, and then you come back and get copy-and-pasted the same email as 10,000 other people about your performance,” Andrew Lennox, a fired Department of Veterans Affairs worker who served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, told ABC News.
Lennox was one of the veterans who attended Trump’s joint address to Congress last week. He was a guest of Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who delivered the Democratic rebuttal to the speech.
The Department of Veterans Affairs also plans to cut up to 80,000 workers from the agency, which has drawn some criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Democratic Rep. Derek Tran of California has introduced similar legislation in the House.
(WASHINGTON) — He was the first Democrat to call for impeachment during President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House and now Rep. Al Green is believed to be he first lawmaker in modern history to be thrown out of a Joint Session of Congress or a State of the Union address, according to a presidential historian.
The 78-year-old Texas congressman was escorted out of the House Chamber at the Capitol Building Tuesday night by the House sergeant at arms after he stood and shook his cane at Trump, and refused to obey House Speaker Mike Johnson’s order to sit down and refrain from interrupting the president’s speech by shouting criticisms.
“I can’t think of another lawmaker being taken out. In modern history, I can say with some level of confidence that the answer is no,” said presidential historian Mark Updegrove, CEO of the President Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation.
In advance of Trump’s speech, members of the House Freedom Caucus called on the sergeant at arms to take action against any member of Congress who violated House rules during the address.
“The President’s address to tonight’s joint session of Congress is a constitutional obligation — not a sideshow for Democrats to use noisemakers, make threats, throw things or otherwise disrupt,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement posted on social media. “Our colleagues are on notice that the heckler’s veto will not be tolerated. You will be censured. We expect the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police to take appropriate action against any Members of Congress or other persons violating House rules.”
On Wednesday morning, the group of hardliners said they would censure Green, but moderate GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington beat them to it. Newhouse formally introduced a measure on the House floor to censure Green, which is expected to be voted on Thursday.
Members of the Freedom Caucus include Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado.
During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speeches between 2022 and 2024, Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Georgia, heckled the former president. During Biden’s 2023 State of the Union speech, Greene stood and yelled “liar” multiple times at the former president, but was not escorted out of the House Chamber.
Updegrove, an ABC News contributor, noted that Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, yelled “You Lie” during former President Barack Obama’s 2009 address to a joint session of Congress on health care. At the time, the House of Representatives, with the Democrats holding the majority, voted to reprimand Wilson, who later issued an apology to Obama.
“The Joe Wilson episode was kind of the introduction of greater hostility in Congress, at least in modern times,” Updegrove said.
After lashing out at Trump, yelling, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green was removed from the chamber Tuesday night. He later told ABC News he’d welcome any consequences from his disruption, saying he was “following the wishes of conscience.”
“There are times when it is better to stand alone than not stand at all,” Green said.
Green doubled down on his protest of Trump’s speech on Wednesday, saying if given the chance, “I would do it again.”
“I am not angry with the speaker. I am not angry with the officers. I am not upset with the members who are going to bring the motions or resolutions to sanction. I will suffer the consequences,” Green told ABC News.
Green added, “What I did was from my heart. People are suffering. And I was talking about Medicaid. I didn’t just say you didn’t have a mandate. I said you don’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid.”
Green said he has not spoken to Democratic leadership about his Tuesday night outburst.
It’s not the first time that Green, who has represented Texas’ 9th congressional district since 2005, has been a thorn in Trump’s side.
In May 2017, Green presented the first articles of impeachment against Trump, citing the firing of FBI Director James Comey. In July 2019, he called for Trump’s impeachment again, citing the president’s attack on four Democratic congresswomen of color. The house voted to table Green’s resolution, effectively killing it.
And just last month, Green announced on the floor of Congress that he intends to again file articles of impeachment against Trump, citing the president’s suggestion that the United States take over the Gaza Strip.
“The movement to impeach the president has begun,” Green said on the House floor. “I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done.”
In February 2024, Green, temporarily left his hospital bed in a wheelchair after undergoing intestinal surgery to vote against the Republican-led impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, then Biden’s secretary of Homeland Security, over his handling of a crisis at the southern border. The house ended up voting 214–216 not to impeach Mayorkas.
“I wanted to do all that I can because I know Secretary Mayorkas. He’s a good, decent man and I didn’t want to see his reputation tarnished,” Green said at the time.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Green moved to Houston, Texas, in the 1970s to attend the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, where he earned a law degree, according to a biography published on his website. He later founded and co-managed the law firm Green, Wilson, Dewberry, and Fitch.
Green also served as the Justice of the Peace for Harris County, Texas, for 26 years, retiring in 2004 to run for Congress. He also served for 10 years as president of the Houston branch of the NAACP.
During his tenure in Congress, Green has focused on fair housing and fair hiring practices for the poor and minorities. While in Congress, he has served on the House Financial Services Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security, and chaired the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.
On his website, Green credits his family for teaching him “righteous resistance to overcome persistent injustice.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has rescinded a stop-work order it issued earlier this week that cut off funding to organizations that provide pro bono representation and other legal assistance to unaccompanied migrant children, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.
“This letter cancels the Stop Work Order issued February 18,2025,” according to the memo, which was sent to organizations by the Department of Interior.
Earlier this week, the Acacia Center for Justice and its subcontractors were told to halt “all activities” related to the work they do to support migrant youth facing deportation. The organization serves about 26,000 migrant children.
Groups like Acacia and Kids in Need of Defense had called the stop-worker “devastating.”
“To expect a child, you know, especially a five- or six-year-old, to try and figure out their immigration case and how to navigate that system in a language that they don’t speak, it’s virtually impossible,” Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, told ABC News.
There are still thousands of unaccompanied minors representing themselves at immigration courts across the country.
In 2023, only 56% of unaccompanied minors in immigration courts were represented by counsel, according to data from the Department of Justice.
(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of Department of Education employees received letters as business hours closed Friday placing them on administrative leave, according to a copy of one letter obtained by ABC News.
While no specific reason was given, some employees told ABC News they believe the only common thread among them is that they attended a voluntary training called the “Diversity Change-Agent Training Program.”
The letter states that the administrative leave notice is not for disciplinary purposes. Rather, it’s being issued under President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and “further guidance” from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, according to the letter.
Per the letter, employees will receive full pay and benefits through the end of the administrative leave.They are not required to do work-related tasks during this time, nor are they required to come into the office. Employees who were placed on leave also had their government email access suspended as they received the letters. There’s no set time for the leave period, according to the letter.
The letters have caused a frenzy throughout the department, as some employees had been locked out of their accounts and had to check their private email addresses for the notice, according to Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252.
Smith told ABC News more than 50 employees in “extremely diverse roles” within the department received the email notices to their government email addresses or their private email accounts after regular business hours over the weekend.
ABC News spoke with three Department of Education employees who received the letters and described their leave as “paid administrative hell” since Friday evening.
“It’s very, very, unsettling,” one department employee of over 20 years, who works in Washington, D.C., told ABC News. “I don’t get it. What’s my crime? What have I done?”
Smith said the positions of Department of Education employees placed on leave run the gamut, from senior civil rights attorneys to attorneys for borrower defense to press specialists. She said she feared more letters would be sent in the coming days.
An attorney who works for the department in Washington, D.C., said they were put on leave from their “dream job.” The employee has two children and received the notice after putting them to bed on Friday night, they said. The person said Friday was tough and the news was shocking to receive, but now they’re feeling “different levels” of sadness.
“My mood felt a little bit different just waking up knowing that I wasn’t going to be working,” the employee told ABC News.
“But I just feel like there’s a lot of information that I’m trying to process and, with small kids, it’s like you’re trying to balance a lot,” the employee added.
Trump’s rhetoric — including threatening for months to shutter the Department of Education — has created fear throughout the department, according to Smith.
“People took these jobs because they care about the mission,” Smith told ABC News. “And so it absolutely impacts us. You know, the very thing that brought us to these jobs we’re unable to do.”
The department employee with two small children has worked for the department for just over four years and comes from a family of educators. The employee said education is the “great equalizer,” and the Department of Education benefits everyone.
“I believe in the department,” the department attorney said, adding: “I always wanted to work here.”
In a statement to ABC News, Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann said the president was elected to enact “unprecedented reform” that is merit-based and efficient at serving the interests of the American people.
“We are evaluating staffing in line with the commitment to prioritizing meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in schools and putting student outcomes above special interests,” Biedermann wrote.
ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Meanwhile, the three department employees who spoke to ABC News said they’re completely stumped on why they were issued administrative leave notices. The department employee with decades of experience in Washington also said it’s puzzling, in part, because during Trump’s first term, managers were evaluated on upholding DEI standards via a department performance rating system.
“We were expected to do DEI,” the employee said. “That’s what Trump and [then-Education Secretary] Betsy DeVos wanted us to do. They wanted to do that. They put it in our [performance] plans. We did not put that in our plans. And not only that, it is in every manager’s plan in the department, not just people that are on administrative leave.”
“Every single person in the Department of Education that’s a supervisor or a manager right now has [DEI] in their performance plan — that is programmed in by the department,” the employee added.
The administrative leave notices may have been tied to a two-day “Diversity Change-Agent Training Program,” a facilitator-led training, according to training document slides obtained by ABC News. The training took place over two days dating as far back as March 2019, under DeVos and during Trump’s first term, according to a February 2019 email obtained by ABC News with the subject “Diversity Change Agent Course.”
The training program aimed to create specific action plans to “drive diversity and inclusion” and increase creativity and innovation. The program also challenged employees to achieve greater results by championing the diversity of its workforce while creating and sustaining an inclusive environment, according to the training document slides.
Another department employee, who took the 2019 training and works remotely out of the New York offices, called the notice “bizarre,” especially since the 2019 training occurred during the president’s first term.
“The whole thing is bizarre,” the department employee told ABC News. “Betsy DeVos — and [Trump’s] prior administration — was a decent champion of these programs, and they didn’t come with any warning to me to say, ‘Hey, taking this training might lead to an adverse personnel action one day,’ right? So it’s just strange how they can retroactively apply something.”
The department employees on leave who spoke to ABC News said they have no official DEI responsibilities in their roles. All three department employees who spoke with ABC News also confirmed the only DEI-like program that would potentially be barred under Trump’s executive order would be the change-agent training sessions.
However, to their knowledge, the three employees on leave said there’s no official list or way of matching the employees on administrative leave with the training programs. Even though they’re convinced these trainings link them to the Trump administration’s definition of DEI, the employees haven’t confirmed why they’re on leave, according to the ones who spoke to ABC News.
The employee who works out of New York has more than a dozen years of experience in administering federal programs. Multiple other employees on administrative leave that this employee spoke to over the weekend said they also took the 2019 training, according to the employee.
“That’s the only thing we can think of that any of us did,” the employee said.
After reaching out to other colleagues with the same titles, the employee in New York said, they “pieced it together.” This employee said they took at least three training programs like the diversity change-agent training program since the initial training.
