LANSING — Current and former government employees testified before a Michigan Senate committee Thursday, highlighting their work and concerns about the shrinking of the federal workforce.
Andrew Lennox, administrative officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs, says he was fired, rehired, and placed on administrative leave over the course of just a few weeks.
“There was no transfer of duties. I had projects that I was still working on, I was actively working on, and if I were to walk away right then, our veterans would be in jeopardy,” he said. “That’s what we do as public servants. We don’t care about the money, we care about the mission.”
Lennox says he was reinstated to his role two weeks ago.
Leslie Desmond is a financial analyst with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“My job is to make sure that federal dollars are spent responsibly,” she said. “My job is the first line in finding fraud, misuse, abuse and waste of government funding.”
Desmond says she was fired, reinstated and then placed on indefinite administrative leave.
”How is it efficient to fire workers and then pay them to sit idly while they’re on administrative leave?” she asked. “This is an insult to not only federal civil servants, but to the American taxpayer whose money is being wasted.”
Nicole Rice, a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says she was fired, reinstated, and fired again just a week ago.
“My income, my health care and my dignity were stripped away without warning and without cause,” she said.
The White House insists cuts to the federal workforce are being done to make the federal government more efficient — but some worry the cuts are having the opposite effect.
“When these employees are silenced or fired, when their missions are derailed, Michigan suffers,” Rice said.
Rice, who worked in NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, says that the people, environment and economy of Michigan are left worse off without adequate environmental research.
“This lab’s work is not duplicated anywhere else. Its loss would be an enormous blow to drinking water safety, climate resilience, maritime safety, invasive species control, and international treaty compliance with Canada,” she said. “Eliminating its parent office — NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research — would save just over $3 per taxpayer while undermining public safety, economic prosperity and environmental stewardship across the Great Lakes and the country,”
According to a 2024 congressional report, nearly 30,000 federal civilian employees live in Michigan.
