1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to act to stop the unlawful mass firings of federal employees, who are the backbone of our government. These firings are being conducted by people who either do not know or do not care what these employees do for our country, as shown by the hundreds that have reportedly been fired from NNSA that the government is now attempting to rehire after realizing that they oversee our nation's nuclear weapons. It is now being reported that the people trying to bring those workers back did such an unprofessional job of processing their terminations that they have no way of actually contacting them. The people making these decisions - primarily Elon Musk's department, whether their decisions are being passed through President Trump or otherwise - clearly do not have an understanding of either how our government agencies are structured or the labor laws protecting those employees. They have sent emails to all government employees that they have then needed to amend and correct after learning that their claims and demands were not feasible or legal. They do not know how our government operates. In addition to employees who oversee nuclear weapons, there are reports that the departments being targeted also include the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Department of the Interior, and the Internal Revenue Service. That is a slap in the face to our nation's veterans, an insult to our national parks, and a questionable choice going into tax season. They have already gutted USAID, which in addition to maintaining our nation's standing in the rest of the world is also a major source of income to our nation's farms. Government employees are fewer than 2% of the jobs in our country, and since tracking began has never been a smaller percentage of jobs than it has in the last decade. Instead of growing our federal workforce to keep up with our population and the complexity of governance, we have instead been hiring outside contractors, which has increased costs. If anything, a careful review should be made to determine where our federal workforce should be increased due understaffing, so that we can employ Americans directly to do that work instead of hiring outside contractors who may be sending work overseas. There are only three possibly rationales for these actions. One is privatization, which would result in higher costs and more dangers all around, as profit becomes a larger motivation than the welfare of our people. The second is loyalty to foreign powers, as weakening our nation and in particular our nation's agency used most for soft power will let rival nations gain standing and say, apparently truthfully, that the United States' promises cannot be relied upon. The third is simple greed, as among the agencies being targeted are also those which have investigated or regulated Musk's businesses. Our nation's federal workers deserve to be treated with respect, not cruelty. Our government cannot function without them. Protect them.