Members of Congress are reacting to President Donald Trump's crackdown on federal government jobs. In the past month, thousands of federal employees have been given pink slips, including 10% of the staff at NASA, nearly 2,000 at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and more than 5,000 in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Some Republicans are beginning to push back — not necessarily criticizing the cuts themselves, but the method and procedure of the reductions.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday the cuts are haphazard.
"I think many of these firings are indiscriminate. We should wait until cabinet members are confirmed and can take a careful look at their agencies' need, rather than doing these sweeping, indiscriminate cuts," Sen. Collins said. "The fact that workers were let go who were working on avian flu and the fact that workers have also been fired who are responsible for nuclear safety, shows that we need a far more careful approach."
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But other Republican senators say President Trump and Musk should have latitude to cut where they see fit.
"No fair-minded American wants to see their tax dollars spent on this kind of rot. And that's what President Trump, through his auditing team, has found," said Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana. "I would have thought that most of my Democrat colleagues, if not all of them, would support getting rid of this sort of rot, this spending porn. But they have clearly chosen the side of the spending porn and the side of the bureaucrats."
