LWVAC is launching a "What You Can Do" (WYCD) campaign where we share a series of action plans. With so much happening on the national stage, these action plans are intended to encourage you to respond to the daily breach of the rule of law and the separation of powers. Read more about this campaign here. Skip to the current action by clicking here.

CURRENT TOPIC:  Firing of Federal Employees

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking a chainsaw approach to firing government employees across nearly all departments and agencies within the federal government.  According to a December 20, 2024 Congressional Research Service report, 94,014 federal employees live in Florida.  Thus, the firings affect Florida families.  The provision of health care, food from our farms and the quality of education are all downstream from the loss of the skills and knowledge of federal employees. Additionally, after a season of three major back-to-back hurricanes, the loss of NOAA staff and scientists will leave Floridians more vulnerable to injury and property damage from extreme weather.  

CURRENT ACTION: Call your legislators and let them know how you feel and why.

Please see the suggested questions for legislators below. Take your pick or make up your own. Choose a question a day. Call every day.

Representative Kat Cammack: (202) 225-5744

Be focused, be respectful, be brief.

1. Tell your story or that of a family member or friend who lost a federal job during the first months of this illegal purge. Emphasize the work they were doing and why it matters.
2. Ask the legislator how he/she knows that the federal staff firings were based on performance. Judge Alsup of the Federal Court of San Francisco said, “It is unlikely, if not impossible, that the agencies themselves had the time to conduct actual performance reviews of the thousands terminated in such a short span of time…it is even less plausible that OPM alone managed to do so.”
3. Ask how the legislator plans to provide safety to their constituents during hurricane season after the firing of NOAA staff. As Rich Spinrad, former NOAA Administrator said, “These terminations are consequential, and we will see an immediate impact on NOAA’s ability to deliver critical services to American individuals, corporations, and communities.”
4. Ask the legislator what he/she will do to protect Florida’s tourist businesses. Two employees were fired at the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge responsible for manatee rescue. Florida’s fishing industry will be affected. Manatees and fishing are part of the Florida tourism industry
5. Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency were fired. Ask how the legislator plans to protect the drinking water of Florida from toxicity.
6. Cuts to IRS have been focused on those who work in tax compliance and their loss will mean reduced revenue collection and an increased federal deficit. Tell your legislator that closing loopholes that allow billionaires to pay few taxes is more efficient than cutting services to middle class Floridians.