3-25-2025 4:34pm

Federal workers fired, reinstated by court order face uncertainty

The U.S. Capitol pictured May 20, 2023. Catherine Hollingsworth/The Bowie Sun

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – For 17 years, Bowie resident Fred Stennis dedicated himself to the U.S. Department of Education, working closely with school districts, community partners and students to help them navigate federal financial aid.

But on the night of March 11, everything changed.

He received a sudden email notifying him that his position had been eliminated and as of March 21, he would be placed on administrative leave.

“Very tragic, uncertain and sudden,” Stennis said. “They didn’t even do that properly, with dignity or any legitimate process, you know, to inform people so they could plan and prepare. It was just done, I think in a very spiteful, mean-spirited tone.”

Then about a week later, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. It was a step toward eliminating bureaucracy and giving states greater control over education, McMahon said in a statement last week.

For Stennis and many others, a once-stable career has turned into an uncertain future.

“It’s devastating,” he said, not just for him but for colleagues with families and workers who depend on health insurance. “People who, in my team, have medical challenges and relied on that a great deal. So, now that has changed; it’s just, you know, a big inconvenience.”

During this “period of uncertainty,” community partners have expressed concern that some parents and students already are making alternate plans and opting not to enroll in the fall, said Stennis, who served as an outreach supervisor.

He and an intern spoke to The Bowie Sun during a federal worker career fair in College Park March 12, following mass federal layoffs.

An intern at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., part of the U.S. Labor Department, had been working at the agency for over a year when she was notified that she would be placed on administrative leave this month.

The intern, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, said she thought the position might lead to job stability after graduation this spring. “I did this program to make sure I would have a job when I graduated. So now I kind of feel like I'm starting all over again, which is irritating and frustrating,” she said.

Just as abruptly as they were laid off, she and thousands of other federal workers were reinstated this month under a court order. But longtime employees were not reinstated and as a result, Stennis plans to transition to education consulting soon, he said in an update.

The legal wrangling continues as Trump seeks a review from the high court. The Trump administration insists probationary employees were lawfully terminated and has asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court order reinstating them.

Fired for `performance’ despite good review

Bowie resident Jadon Walker was an intern at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the Health and Human Services (HHS), one of the departments where workers were reinstated by court order.

When he was placed on administrative leave in February, he was informed that he would be terminated within a month. His boss didn’t even know Walker had received the notice, which stated that he was fired due to his performance despite a top performance rating this year, he said.

“So it was kind of contradictory, because it was like, how can you fire me on performance if I wasn't actually performing poorly?”

He said it is unclear what the court order means for him. “I'm not entirely sure, because we don't know the guidance for HHS…,” Walker said, “so I'm not entirely sure if I'll be getting my job back.”

Walker had been working at NIH for eight months in the Pathways Internship Program, a position that typically lasts through the duration of the intern’s academic program. He had anticipated transitioning from intern to a full-time career.

Now, he along with some of his peers are worried about job prospects in their field. “I was speaking to a lot of other government majors about this; a lot of people are worried about what to do with their major,” Walker said.

“So, it does leave a little bit of uncertainty.”

The massive layoffs occurred without advance notice as required under rules set by Congress, the court order stated. The U.S. government claimed the layoffs were related to performance, but the federal judge in the case said there were no individualized assessments of fired employees.

Legal rights forum set for April 4

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown Brown called the layoffs “indiscriminate and unlawful” and harmful to the state's unemployment benefits. He led a group of states that won the court order reinstating workers at 18 federal agencies.

“Many of the agencies subject to this order have placed their employees on paid administrative leave rather than fully reinstating them as active employees with full job duties," the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association stated in a March 26 newsletter.

Brown will take part in a virtual forum April 4 to discuss the status of court cases against the Trump administration and the legal rights of federal workers. The forum is sponsored by Prince George’s County Council member Wala Blegay, whose district includes Mitchellville and unincorporated parts of Bowie.

The sweeping federal layoffs are part of the White House’s America First priorities, portions of which mirror the goals of Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda published by the Heritage Foundation.

During Trump’s campaign, he dismissed any ties to that agenda. Yet within his first 63 days in office, the Project 2025 tracker reports that the president has implemented 42% of the foundation's initiatives.

The Department of Government Efficiency, a quickly assembled entity headed by billionaire Elon Musk, has been tasked with implementing the federal downsizing. The Musk-led effort has sparked legal challenges, protests and angry town hall meetings across the country.

This story was updated March 26 to include an update from Stennis on his status since the initial interview. It also adds updates from the March 26 newsletter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

Savannah Grooms covers Bowie as a student reporter for the University of Maryland Local News Network.