A news report about a possible Trump administration executive order to fire thousands of federal health workers is sparking anxiety in Montgomery County. Administration officials denied that such an executive order is coming, but fear and anger in the community remain.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the White House is preparing to fire thousands of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees. The agency includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which both have large facilities in Montgomery County.
“We have some of the smartest people who come from all over the world in order to serve the public interest, in order to do some of the most cutting-edge and critical research, which has literally saved lives and continues to positively impact the world, and these are the folks that this administration is attacking,” said Montgomery County Councilmember Andrew Friedson.
Cutting jobs would harm important work, said an NIH researcher who asked not to be identified, for fear of retaliation.
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“Firings or layoffs on top of the disruption we’ve already seen would pose a significant delay or stoppage to what will end up being lifesaving research that we do,” he said.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich noted that NIH alone employs tens of thousands of people. Any job cuts could have a ripple effect.
“I think there’s a serious risk of people losing their homes, particularly if you have two federal employees. It could be the elimination of total income for the household,” he said. “There are no programs for these people. Are they going to get unemployment for X number of weeks? We all know unemployment is so low. It’s not gonna be able to cover their mortgage.”
Stay with NBC Washington as we learn more about federal job cuts and the Trump administration’s plans.
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