IFPTE Federal Sector Round Up on
Trump/Musk and DOGE Attacks on Federal Workers
Despite IFPTE’s best efforts, along with the entire U.S. labor movement, the Senate and House managed to barely pass a budget reconciliation bill that eliminates over $1 trillion in combined federal funding for the Medicaid and SNAP programs. Make no mistake, these are historically steep and draconian cuts that the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will result in 16 million Americans losing healthcare coverage and millions more, particularly children, losing food assistance, not to mention the shuttering of hospitals across the nation.
In addition to doing away with healthcare, sadly this will also impact some 850,000 jobs, particularly in the public and healthcare sectors, which is very troubling for IFPTE Locals across the United States, as IFPTE represents tens of thousands of state and local government, and healthcare workers. After all was said and done, the bill passed the Senate when Vice President Vance had to cast the tie breaking vote after all but three Senate Republicans (Rand Paul, Thom Tillis and Susan Collins) joined all Democrats in voting against the bill. All House Democrats along with two Republicans (Brian Fitzpatrick and Thomas Massi) voted against it in that Chamber. In that regard, a special note of appreciation to Congressman Fitzpatrick, a good friend to IFPTE, who held firm in voting against both the House rule to allow the bill to move to final vote (the only Republican to do so), and against the underlying bill. We know that Rep. Fitzpatrick is as great a supporter of labor as there is in Congress, and we thank him for also seeing the fallacy of this legislation. President Trump, for his part, signed the bill on Independence Day of all days, leading the way for huge tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of Medicaid and SNAP recipients.
As bad as this legislation is, it could have been worse if not for the legislative efforts of IFPTE and the labor movement. Let us not forget that leading up to passage of the bill, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) Chairman, Rand Paul, with the support of Senate Majority Leader Thune, aimed to include policy proposals to eliminate official time for federal unions, give the President the authority to reorganize and dismantle federal agencies without Congressional approval, politicize the civil service, slash pensions, and undermine collective bargaining by forcing newly hired federal employees to choose to be at-will employees or pay a surcharge of 5% of their federal salary for merit protections. Simply stated, these proposals were intended to destroy federal unions. However, IFPTE’s efforts to work with key Senate offices against these proposals proved largely successful, as the Senate parliamentarian saw the proposals for what they were – policymaking based on an anti-federal worker, anti-federal union ideology. As a reminder, here is IFPTE’s response that includes our letter, and the Senate Budget Committee Dems response, and here is IFPTE’s statement following House passage.
IFPTE thanks all Locals that helped to work against this legislation. It was a long and grueling effort, but one worth making. A special shout-out to Local 21 as the Local and members implemented an aggressive campaign to let their Congressionals know that if they support this bill, we will remember come election time. After all, this bill is overwhelmingly unpopular among the American public, yet the Republican-led Congress acquiesced once again to the demands of President Trump and passed it, proving yet again that elections have consequences. We must not forget which lawmakers supported this, as well as those that did not.
Looking forward, Congress will continue to move forward with the appropriations process, something of keen interest to IFPTE and our members. Top of the list are President Trump’s proposals to slash science and aeronautics funding at NASA (science funding by 47%, with an overall NASA budget cut of 25%), slash funding at NOAA, the Army Corps of Engineers, GAO and CRS. We will continue to work in a bipartisan way with Congressional appropriators on these critical funding issues. Finally, IFPTE will of course seek to defund President Trump’s Executive Orders seeking to bust federal unions.
IFPTE also continues to work in support of HR 2550, the Protect America’s Workforce Act, legislation jointly sponsored by Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic Representative Jared Golden to overturn the Trump Administration’s union busting executive order denying collective bargaining rights to 1.5 million federal workers, including thousands of IFPTE-represented workers, while eliminating union payroll dues deduction. HR 2550 has eclipsed over 50% of House support with 222 bipartisan cosponsors. As has been reported here for the last several weeks, we continue to pursue a discharge petition in the House, which will bypass the opposition of House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and trigger full house consideration. That effort continues and will likely run well into Fall, and perhaps even the Winter.
Legislative Director Faraz Khan is also working to procure a Senate companion bill to HR 2550. Senator Mark Warner from Virginia is ready to introduce the bill, but there has yet to be a Republican Senator step up to co-introduce the bill with him, a point of great frustration to IFPTE and all of labor. Keep in mind that Senators Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska enjoy large populations of federal employees working and living in their respective states, including thousands of IFPTE members. It should be a no-brainer for each to lead this effort on the Republican side, but they are picking and choosing which issues to fight the Trump Administration on and, so far, fighting for federal workers apparently isn’t one of them. IFPTE members, and all federal workers living in Maine or Alaska should contact each of their offices and ask the question: “Do you support me as a federal worker, or do you support President Trump’s attack on my rights?” We are continuing to work to get the Senate version introduced.
Finally, IFPTE continues to roll out the EDues program with Locals 121 and 1 currently signing up members, and Locals 12, 3, 1921, 561 and others in the queue. As reported above, there is an injunction on the Order eliminating dues deduction and collective bargaining rights and the dues deduction may be turned back on…However, IFPTE is advising Locals to transfer over to EDues, even if the dues are turned back on. As unions we can’t have faith that President Trump, or a future President for that matter, will not try to eliminate our ability to collect dues moving forward. We can control our dues collection and should do so moving forward. That said, we thank all of the Locals across the IFPTE family that stepped up to support IFPTE’s federal sector by contributing to the set-up cost of the EDues system. “THANK YOU” to Locals 1, 20, 21, 70, 160, 162, 194, 195, 1921 and 2001 for your generous contributions to the EDues program!
Below is a summary of where things stand in the Courts and the ongoing Grassroots efforts.
LEGISLATIVE:
- The so-call big, beautiful bill passes Senate, House and is signed into law – As stated above, both the Senate and House very narrowly passed HR 1, a budget reconciliation bill that cuts over $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP and uses the $1 trillion in cuts to help pay for a tax cut for billionaires and corporations. Even with the cuts, the bill adds nearly $4 trillion to the national debt over ten years. As bad as the bill could have been though, IFPTE legislative efforts did pay off, as Republican efforts to include language aimed at eliminating federal unions, turning the federal government into an at-will employer, forcing federal workers to pay upwards of 15% of their income into their pensions without any benefit increase, and allowing the President to have carte blanche in reorganizing federal agencies were all disallowed by the Senate Parliamentarian. IFPTE thanks all Locals that helped to work against this legislation.
- Appropriations – As we all know, federal agencies are currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR), as Congress has yet to pass the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) appropriations bills, even while appropriators are turning their attention to the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) funding bills. There are many issues impacting IFPTE members that are tied to the appropriations process, including NASA, NOAA, GAO and CRS funding, all of which are under attack by the Trump Administration. IFPTE will continue to work closely with the Locals and members as we advocate for them on Capitol Hill during the appropriations process.
- The Protect America’s Workers Act (HR 2550) – As indicated above, we continue to work on the discharge petition for HR 2550, introduced last month by Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Democratic Rep. Jared Golden (ME) to repeal the Trump Executive Order (EO) eliminating collective bargaining rights for 1.5 million federal workers, now has 222 cosponsors representing more than 50% of the House of Representatives. A discharge petition is needed because despite the overwhelming support for the legislation, House Speaker Mike Johnson will not schedule the bill for consideration. See IFPTE’s letter supporting the House bill.
- Legislative Director Faraz Khan continues to work with key Senators to procure a similar bill to the Fitzpatrick-Golden bill in the Senate, and IFPTE anticipates a bill to be introduced in the coming days, with Virginia Senator Mark Warner expected to author the Senate version of the bill. Please continue to Call your Congressional Representative and ask them to cosponsor the bipartisan Protect America’s Workforce Act.
- IFPTE continues to ask lawmakers to cosponsor HR 3093, The “Restoring Employment and Hiring Incentives for Removed Employees Act” or REHIRE Act to rebuild the federal workforce by providing a hiring preference for federal workers who were fired or otherwise involuntarily removed during the Trump Administration, and; HR 3094, the ‘‘Probationary Reduction for Employee Protections Act’’ or PREP Act, which would clarify that federal employees who are new to the competitive service have a 1-year probationary period, and employees who are moving to a new competitive service position from another position will have a 6-month probationary period. Both bills are authored by Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) and IFPTE is encouraging Locals to also urge their House members to cosponsor these bills.
LEGAL:
- Supreme Court decision on nationwide injunctions and AFGE-led case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California – A preliminary injunction was granted last month by the U.S. District Court for Northern California against Trump’s March 27th Union Busting Executive Order. The Judge in the case noted that Plaintiffs are likely to win and granted the injunction blocking the Order, saying that the Union busting order aimed to overturn 60 years of the legally protected practice of federal workers engaging in collective bargaining. Read the GovExec article about the injunction.
Remember that this AFGE case is the second of two filed so far against the Union busting order, with NTEU filing the initial lawsuit in the DC Federal Circuit. Unfortunately the May 7th injunction on the Trump union busting EO in the NTEU lawsuit was lifted on May 16th by a three-judge appeals panel. The 2-1 majority decision lifting the restraining order ruled that the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) did not prove damages to the Union, even though the EO caused the immediate elimination of payroll Union Dues from federal union members to their Unions, including IFPTE. The merits of the NTEU suit continue through the legal process.
That said, on June 27th the Supreme Court issued a ruling in what is being referred to in the press as the ‘birthright citizenship’ case. However, that case did not deal with the merits of whether or not birthright citizenship was constitutional. Instead, the Trump Administration challenged the ability of federal district courts to issue nationwide injunctions, like the one issued in AFGE case last month. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, threw out decades of precedent by limiting judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions against illegal executive orders, including the Trump union busting and RIF orders, just to name a few. In what can only be described as confusion, the MAGA Supreme Court seemed to be bending over backwards to appease President Trump with this ruling. Right now, it is hard to determine what exactly this means for all of the Union lawsuits against the orders – the lawyers for the Unions are determining this now and planning a legal path forward. In the meantime, here is a GovExec story on the decision. We will keep you all up to speed as we learn more.
Finally, IFPTE is expected to be Plaintiff in a yet to be filed third lawsuit against the Order, that will take into account this latest development from the Supreme Court. That should be filed later this Summer or Fall. - More lawsuits to come – As part of the overall litigation strategy, IFPTE is part of a coalition of unions joining together to file an additional lawsuit later this Summer against the Executive Order in a venue to be determined. We thank those Locals that have already provided information to our Legal Department and ask that Local leaders continue to do so as we prepare. Please contact IFPTE General Counsel Teresa Ellis at tellis@ifpte.org with any pertinent information regarding specific impacts from the imposition of the EO.
- May 22nd injunction blocking EO 14210 on RIFs remains in place – The preliminary injunction in the Ninth Circuit that was granted on May 22nd stated that President Trump cannot implement mass layoffs of federal workers without the approval of Congress which created these agencies. “Presidents may set policy priorities for the executive branch, and agency heads may implement them. This much is undisputed,” said Judge Susan Illston for the Northern District of California in her decision. “But Congress creates federal agencies, funds them, and gives them duties that—by statute—they must carry out. Agencies may not conduct large-scale reorganizations and reductions in force in blatant disregard of Congress’s mandates, and a President may not initiate large-scale executive branch reorganization without partnering with Congress.” The ruling is an extension of the two-week temporary restraining order (TRO) she previously issued on May 9. This means the 22 agencies named in the lawsuit are prohibited from implementing their planned layoffs until the case is resolved.
The restraining order applies to the following agencies: OMB, OPM, DOGE, USDA, Commerce, Energy, HHS, HUD, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation, VA, AmeriCorps, EPA, GSA, NLRB, NSF, SBA, and SSA and their efforts to implement or enforce sections 3(c) and 3(e) of Executive Order 14210 or the February 26, 2025 OMB/OPM Memorandum.
In addition, plaintiffs this week sought an emergency status conference for “apparent noncompliance” with a federal judge’s preliminary injunction barring officials from carrying out large-scale reductions in force. At least two federal agencies — the State Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — have “continued to implement” President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14210 despite U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s preliminary injunction barring them from doing so. This, among other cases, moves in the direction of a constitutional showdown and we will be watching closely and ready to mobilize.
As explained in the GovExec article, the Supreme Court decision limiting nationwide injunctions likely does not apply to RIF cases like this.
The Trump Administration has appealed to the Supreme Court. - Possible victory against “channeling” – National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ/IFPTE Judicial Council) 2 First Amendment Case – Two weeks ago the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a huge win for the NAIJ/IFPTE Judicial Council 2, and federal workers, by reviving a First Amendment case brought by the NAIJ against the Department of Justice’s ‘gag order’ imposed on Immigration Judges. The DOJ policy required pre-approval by the agency for any immigration judge to speak on “official matters,” including for any union officials acting in their union capacity on behalf of the immigration judges’ unit. The district court had found that the NAIJ had to first go to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) before suing in federal court and dismissed the case. However, the 4th Circuit decision recognized the current state of affairs throughout the civil service system and questioned whether the MSPB and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) were still functional given the Trump Administration’s attacks on them. In her opinion, Judge Berman wrote, “The Civil Service Reform Act requires a strong and independent Merit Systems Protections Board and Special Counsel. That foundational principle, that functioning and independent bodies would receive, review, and decide in the first instance challenges to adverse personnel actions affecting covered federal employees, has recently been called into question. Because Congress intended for the Civil Service Reform Act to strip district courts of jurisdiction only if federal employees were otherwise able to receive adequate and independent review of their claims, we vacate and remand to the district court to consider whether the text, structure, and purpose of the Civil Service Reform Act has been so undermined that the jurisdiction stripping scheme no longer controls.”
As such, the court has helped clear a path for federal unions arguing against so-called “channeling” to the FLRA, OSC, and MSPB by acknowledging the fact that bringing an issue to a broken system for a resolution is futile. Here is a link to the decision.
In other news on the legal front:
- IFPTE is a co-plaintiff in a RIF case in D.C. District Court covering all our Locals, including DOD. As we previously informed you, plaintiffs’ requests for a TRO and PI were rejected by the court. This case is still pending on the merits; the government filed a motion to dismiss on May 15. Here is the amended complaint. We will keep Locals updated as this litigation continues.
- IFPTE RIF guidance to Locals – Please see the March 11 memo from IFPTE GC, Teresa Ellis and Greg McGillivary of McGillivary Steele Elkin regarding Reductions-In-Force (RIFs) and Mass Terminations of Federal Employees. OPM, OMB and DOGE mandated that federal agencies produce RIF lists by April 14. RIF guidance memo here.
- See the February 26th OPM memo instructing agencies to largely ignore RIF language in union negotiated CBA’s and calling on agencies to identify positions to RIF by April 14. IFPTE recommends that Locals file grievances if management refuses to abide negotiated RIF language in their respective CBAs.
- Legal support for federal workers – Rise Up, Fight Back – Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have had their basic rights violated on the job—including tens of thousands who have been fired illegally. Federal workers have an urgent need for legal support. Federal workers now have a network of lawyers helping to get them the justice they deserve. See the GovExec article here.
- Status of all lawsuits against the current administration can be found at Just Security: [click.actionnetwork.org] “Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions [click.actionnetwork.org].”
GRASSROOTS
- “Civil Service Strong” coalition – IFPTE has partnered with the Civil Service Strong project of Democracy Forward, along with other unions, to support our members who are civil servants under attack by the Trump administration. Alongside the 95% of people who believe civil servants should be hired and promoted based on their merit rather than their political beliefs, Civil Service Strong is committed to supporting a career, non-partisan civil service and the people who power it. Learn more here.
- MAKE A CALL – Restore Federal Employee Rights Now – IFPTE joins the AFL-CIO campaign asking every single American who cares about the fundamental freedom of all workers to join a union to call their member of Congress right now. Fill out the form on the right to receive a call or dial 844-896-5059. Learn more here.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
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