3-05-2025 4:08pm

Federal layoffs could threaten Bowie area's workforce and economy

The U.S. Capitol is pictured June 1, 2023. Savannah Grooms/The Bowie Sun

The Bowie area, with its large population of government employees and contractors, could be hit hard by President Donald Trump’s ongoing federal workforce reductions, potentially sending ripple effects across the local economy, a county leader warned.

Bracing for a worst-case scenario, County Council Member Wala Blegay, who represents Mitchellville and unincorporated parts of Bowie, warned that the impact of continued federal cuts could be severe in the county, potentially leading to a recession and widespread home foreclosures.

In Blegay’s district, she said the situation appears “bleak” for federal workers on administrative leave if they are ultimately let go.

Even if they were recruited to fill state government jobs, there may not be enough of those positions for every affected Marylander, she said. Many of them could be one paycheck away from foreclosure if they can’t easily find work, Blegay said.

“Our biggest scare is that if people are not able to land jobs easily after being laid off from the federal government, that they're not having income coming in, we're going to start to see a high number of foreclosures,” Blegay said in an interview with The Bowie Sun.

A high number of foreclosures would lead to a loss of county revenue and hurt the county’s ability to build its commercial tax base, she said.

Blegay has urged those affected by the federal government layoffs to reach out to their county council representatives, who are working with nonprofit partners to support residents.

Prince George's State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy, who has declared victory in the Democratic primary special election for county executive, vowed to “bring hope and opportunities throughout the state of Maryland.”

In addition to eliminating tens of thousands of federal jobs so far, the Trump administration also abruptly canceled federal grants and what it called “wasteful” contracts. These cutbacks come as Prince George’s County and the state government are facing budget shortfalls.

While the City of Bowie currently is in good financial shape, “Bowie and Maryland can be expected to be hard hit by promised major cuts to federal service,” Bowie City Councilman Mike Esteve wrote in a recent newsletter to constituents.

“Depending on the size and speed of federal cuts, many among us will be hurting,” Esteve wrote. “It doesn't help that those likeliest to be let go are newer federal employees and more recent homeowners, having bought in Bowie with sky-high home prices and higher interest rates.”

Fear of government shutdown

Adding to the uncertainty, a Trump-backed plan to keep the government running has stalled over whether or not to include cuts to federal jobs and programs, according to media reports. If Congress fails to pass a short-term funding bill by the March 14 deadline, the federal government could run out of money and shut down.

A full government shutdown would have “a massive impact on our state, massive impacts on our budgets, massive impacts on our well-being,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently told reporters, according to Maryland Matters.

The governor has rolled out several steps intended to blunt the impact of widespread cuts across federal agencies, including recruiting laid off federal workers for education jobs to address a statewide teacher shortage. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is part of a coalition that won a court order this week blocking Trump's funding freeze, and he is leading a fight to stop mass firings of probationary federal employees.

Many local governments and higher education institutions typically rely on federal grants to fund programs, including Prince George’s Community College and the University System of Maryland, which includes Bowie State University. Among the county’s largest employers are military bases and federal agencies, including U.S. Census Bureau facilities in Bowie and Suitland.

Trump: U.S. government `bloated’

The economy of Prince George’s County mainly relies on the business of the federal government, but it’s time to “adjust to a new future” under Trump, Republican Lee Havis recently wrote on his blog site, Citizens for a Better Prince George’s County.

The county, Havis wrote, “cannot long rely on a tax base propped up by a bloated federal workforce economy, which is bound to soon come to an end.”

President Trump, who has described the U.S. government as “bloated” and “incompetently run,” issued a series of executive orders intended to shrink the federal government, setting off a wave of layoffs and legal battles.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, is implementing large-scale workforce reductions under a Feb. 11 order. Calling them “workforce reforms,” the White House also plans to identify federal agencies that may be eliminated or combined.

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, which has a Bowie-Crofton chapter, has urged members to use social media to remind the public about their work on behalf of Americans.

NARFE National President William “Bill” Shackelford said in a statement this week that the Trump administration’s “act first, think later mentality in reducing the size of the federal workforce will lead to disruption of critical government operations as they chart an aggressive path towards firing hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants.”

The administration may be intentionally seeking to go around Congress and the appropriations process “by gutting the federal workforce,” Shackelford said.

Labor unions and other groups have filed a lawsuit over the firing of probationary federal employees, while county leaders and Maryland lawmakers have hosted federal worker forums to provide resources to residents.

At the request of a Bowie resident, Blegay said she hosted a virtual federal workers forum last Thursday with Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer and other leaders.

Hoyer: Massive cuts could imperil nation

Hoyer, who represents much of Bowie, said that the repeated federal worker directives have “traumatized” federal employees and also threaten to weaken the federal government’s ability to respond to a crisis.

“To keep sending out these notices, starting with the first notice which said to two million civilian employees, if you want to leave you can leave, and we’ll pay you for five months, six months, and you don’t have to come to work, an absurd order,” Hoyer said.

He added, “Had it been followed out, it would have shut down the government entirely and made us very, very susceptible to attack by our enemies and chaos and crisis here at home.”

Hoyer also criticized the lack of transparency around the layoffs in the Republican-led Congress.

“We’re not having hearings while the administration totally undermines the balance between the Congress and the executive [branch],” Hoyer said. “We do not believe they can do legally much of what they’re doing and certainly not eliminating, effectively an agency, without the Congress approving.”

The layoffs followed an earlier buyout offer that promised employees pay until September in exchange for “deferred resignation.” But resigning could forfeit unemployment benefits, Hoyer said at a virtual town hall organized by County Council Chair Jolene Ivey.

Gov. Moore watching legal case

A federal judge has ruled many of the terminations unlawful in a case that Maryland Gov. Moore said he is closely watching.

Fiona Kohrman, legislative representative for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said they are actively challenging these executive orders in court.

“AFGE has been a lead plaintiff in several lawsuits in federal court challenging the administration's executive orders on several different issues, ranging from deferred resignation, violation of personal data, Schedule F and probationary employees, just to name some of the most prominent cases,” Kohrman said during Thursday’s forum.

The Schedule F order would convert career public servants to political appointments, making them easier to fire, unions say.

Several departments already slashed

Federal workers already have been let go or fired at the Agriculture, Education, Energy, Commerce, Homeland Security, IRS, Transportation and the Veterans Affairs departments, according to NARFE and AFGE. The Defense Department plans to cut 5,400 jobs, the Associated Press reported.

Trump’s order also has been implemented at some independent federal agencies such as the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where staffers had 15-minute time slots to clear their desks on Thursday following a notification of their job elimination.

Musk has admitted that mistakes may occur as the administration continues cutting government programs and federal jobs, noting that an Ebola prevention program was inadvertently cut at USAID. But any mistakes would be addressed and corrected, Musk said at Trump’s first cabinet meeting.

“I should say we will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect,” Musk said. “But when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it quickly.”

The president's attempt to withhold foreign aid by USAID and the State Department hit a roadblock this week after the Supreme Court let stay a court order blocking Trump from freezing funds.

This story was updated to include Braveboy's remarks and the latest developments with frozen funds and the short-term funding bill in Congress.

Savannah Grooms covers Bowie as a student reporter for the UMD Local News Network.

Catherine Hollingsworth contributed research to this report.