Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) called Donald Trump’s mass firings of federal employees a “big problem” and said she is “very concerned” about the impact it will have in her home state.
“I’m very concerned about the impact on the state of Maine, on everything from our national parks to biomedical research,” she told CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday. “So this is a big problem.”
The Trump administration has empowered Elon Musk, an unelected, South African-born billionaire, to slash the federal workforce and potentially shut down entire agencies created by Congress.
The firings have hit every major agency in the federal government and is so disorganized that in some cases, federal officials ended up reversing their decision and is now scrambling to rehire employees they just let go.
At the United States Department of Agriculture, federal officials rushed to rehire scientists monitoring the bird flu outbreak and the Energy Department had to rehire National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials responsible for designing, building and overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
Across the country, Republican lawmakers in ruby red districts are being confronted by angry constituents who are upset about Trump’s and Musk’s moves and the lack of action from the GOP controlled Congress to reign them in.
