Press Releases

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation and the author of the Saving the Civil Service Act, released the following statement in response to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s defense of Donald Trump’s plan to wreak havoc on Northern Virginia by firing or relocating more than 100,000 federal employees:

“Donald Trump has been crystal clear: as part of his pledge to be a dictator on day one, he will fire tens of thousands of federal employees so he can replace them with political loyalists and will relocate 100,000 more out of the National Capital Region. That isn’t ‘speculative,’ as Governor Youngkin so dismissively suggests. It’s a real plan, in writing and available for all to see, that will upend our local economy and put thousands of Northern Virginia families through totally unnecessary financial and emotional distress.

Governor Youngkin seems to forget that we already know how Donald Trump feels about the federal workforce. We lived through four long years of it. Cruel personal attacks against civil servants. Unsafe work environments during a global pandemic. Pay freezes. Government shutdowns and furloughs. Even an across-the-board hiring ban that hampered the federal government’s ability to effectively serve the American people.

No, Donald Trump’s disdain for patriotic public servants is no secret to us in Northern Virginia. Governor Youngkin would do well to remember that.”