A group of former federal workers went from office to office on the Senate side of Capitol Hill today to request meetings with senators or their staff about the DOGE cuts that left them jobless.
The group did not meet with any senators, but had brief conversations with staff in their offices or lobby areas. At one point, the former workers were escorted out of the office of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, after the lobby got too crowded.
“I really loved the work that we were doing, and now I don’t know what to do, and I have cried every day,” Elizabeth Lidden, one of the fired employees, said. “I have a 15-month-old at home, and I’m looking at him and thinking, ‘Well, what’s this country that we’re now living in?’”
Lidden, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, called the termination process “disorganized,” adding that she got two termination letters on the same day.
Marlee Bird, a former USAID contractor, echoed Lidden, describing her own termination as “chaotic” and saying she was in meetings where it was unclear who the leadership was and what her legal rights were.
Another former USAID employee, Karlan Jankowski, said her colleagues have told her they are constantly checking their emails, and that the uncertainty is “creating a real environment of chaos.” Ten workers have been cut from her team, which started out with 35 people, she said.
“There’s no jobs for us here in D.C.,” Bird added. “I don’t know if there are jobs for us, period. A lot of people’s professional lives have just been completely ruined, and I want to know how the senators are going to support us. How are they going to give us resources? How are they going to make sure that people’s families are taken care of?”
