'Step out for us': Anxious federal workers beg GOP to slow Trump cuts

Travis Gettys

Feb. 11, 2025, 11:16 p.m.

Republican lawmakers are getting an earful from constituents back home who are angry by the swift — and sweeping — cuts Donald Trump and Elon Musk are making to the federal government, but they're reluctant to speak out too loudly against the constitutionally problematic moves.

They've so far projected agreement with efforts to pare the federal workforce to the bone, but have grown concerned about the president and his unelected adviser usurping their power of the purse. Now, they're looking ahead to the government funding deadline next month as an opportunity to push for programs they want funded while backing cuts they support, reported CNN.

“We still have the power of the purse, and I zealously protect the power of the purse,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) supports a federal government audit, and he has asked the administration to go line by line through USAID funding and preserve programs that serve national security interests, although he does favor shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Instead of getting rid of everything, let’s look at it selectively,” Bacon said. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

“Congress has to catch up to the plan or the president’s plan has to be revised, because the law is law,” Bacon added. “We have got to follow the law. If there are things we have to redirect, let’s do it the constitutional way.”

Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) has been opening case files and contacting the White House and federal agencies to advocate for federal workers based in his district.

“We’ve been very clear that the headache with the federal bureaucracy largely resides within the national capital region,” Nunn said. “Most of the folks that we’ve got in Iowa are frontline workers that are serving people in our community.”

Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) a former police officer, agrees the government could be more efficient, but he said federal employees do important work across the country.

“You’re not going to see this member demonize federal workers – I was one of them,” Stauber said. “My wife was one of them. I know a lot of good, solid workers. But you can’t tell me that we can’t become more efficient. That’s the goal.”

At least 80 percent of federal employees work outside the Washington, D.C., area, according to the Office of Personnel Management, and Republicans are concerned that Trump and Musk are moving too quickly to cut jobs that could prove to be essential.

“If this was a Democratic administration with the same things happening, people would be lit up about it,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN. “So, I think we have to be careful about the precedent that they’re setting.”

Republicans seem disinclined to directly challenge the president on the so-called Department of Government Efficiency headed by Musk, and instead hope to counter some of those moves with legislation.

But workers are growing impatient.

"We want them to step out for us, but we know the situation they are in with President Trump," said one federal workers union representative. "I do think they will work behind the scenes with us and convince [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson not to do certain things.”