Fired federal workers lobby for help on Capitol Hill - is anyone listening?

Democrats have been receptive to the 'Tuesday Group' but the Republicans who control Congress are looking the other way

The Tuesday Group was feeling something familiar as its members circled a bank of elevators in the busy basement of a Senate office structure: rejection.

They had often been informed no over the past months - when the government transferred to fire them with Donald Trump's true blessing, when judges turned down challenges to that choice and when the legislators who they have actually taken to finding on Capitol Hill when a week when Congress is in session would turn a deaf ear to their pleas.

More than 59,000 federal workers have actually lost their tasks given that Trump took office, according to government information, but those in power have actually not altered their tune.

This Tuesday early morning, it was staffers of Maine's Republican senator Susan Collins who had actually informed them no, even after they staged an impromptu sit-in in her workplace for the better part of a half hour. So they continued five floors to the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, hoping that some senator - any senator - would give them a moment of their time.

Then the elevator doors opened and who must come out but Collins. "Senator Collins!" someone in the group shouted. Another attempted to introduce themselves: "I'm a fired federal worker." But the senator started waving her hands in front of her in an apparent indication of: I don't have time for this.

"Thank you," Collins stated, as she made her method down the hall.

"It's rather common," observed Whitt Masters, a previous USAID professional who has actually been jobless considering that the end of March, when the company employing him decided to apply for personal bankruptcy after its customer started to shut down.

"You know, I don't anticipate every senator to stop and speak with us. I wish she 'd been a bit more friendly, specifically considering that we had actually invested some time in her workplace previously today."

What's been dubbed the Tuesday Group has occurred the Capitol considering that mid-February, as Trump and Elon Musk's campaign to thin out the federal labor force began to bite. Some who show up have actually been fired, others are on paid leave while a judge considers whether it is legal to fire them, and those who work for USAID anticipate to formally lose their jobs next Tuesday, when the company shuts down.

Democrats typically invite them, but when it comes to the Republicans who control Congress - and are weighing legislation to codify some cuts and make much deeper ones in the next - the reception has been uneven. They've been ignored, blown off and belittled - all things they would experience last Tuesday, their 17th visit to the Hill.

Their encounter with Collins useless, the group formed something of a gauntlet at the crossway of a corridor leading in between office complex and to the Senate train, a place where legislators made certain to hand down a scorcher of a day.

They would call out to any face they recognized, but the group of 10 was absolutely nothing a figured out senator could not handle. Montana Republican Tim Sheehy speed-walked by with a reporter and cameraman in pursuit; Washington Democrat Patty Murray pounded past in sneakers; and Arkansas Republican John Boozman ambled through alone, displaying no indication that he understood the group was even there.

"Would you like to hear how we are impacting your constituents?" asked Stephie Duliepre, who was fired from her Science for Development fellowship program at USAID, when Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn happened the corner. The senator pushed on, the answer apparently being no.

John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, exited a stairwell that deposited him right in the middle of the group. He appeared to acknowledge them - on a previous visit, participants stated that Hoeven had actually discussed his support for folding a major USAID food help program into the state department. "I see you're still dealing with it," he quipped, before heading off.

The Democrats they encountered said words of encouragement, and a couple of stopped to talk. "Don't give up," Dick Durbin of Illinois stated when he encountered the group. "I'm with you," Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin called out.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham attempted the quiet treatment as he came past, but Amelia Hertzberg, who was on administrative leave from her task in the Epa, was not having it. She followed him down the hall, and started bounding around to get his attention.

"You have a brilliant future," Hertzberg recalls the senator saying. "Well, I was going to have an intense future, and after that I was fired," she replied.

The group spotted Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and popular Trump ally. "Senator Hawley, these are fired federal employees. Do you have a second to talk with them?" asked Melissa Byrne, a community organizer who had actually assembled the group.

"No," he responded.

The group was aghast, however they 'd been dealt with worse. When Mack Schroeder came across Indiana Republican Jim Banks one Tuesday and introduced himself as having been fired from the Department of Health and Human Services, the senator replied, "You most likely deserved it," before calling him "a clown".

That remained in April. The occurrence made the news, Banks declined to say sorry, and the Tuesday Group kept appearing.

"I've spoken to the media and been on the radio. I have actually called my senators, my agents, and it feels a little bit like screaming into a void," said Hertzberg, who has made about 12 visits to the Capitol now.