Sen. Susan Collins is “very concerned” about how the Trump administration’s mass firings in the federal government will affect her home state.
“I’m very concerned about the impact on the state of Maine, on everything from our national parks to biomedical research,” the Republican told CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday. “So this is a big problem.”
The administration, advised by billionaire Elon Musk, the unelected head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has carried out mass firings, including many federal employees who are on probationary status as relatively recent hires. The firings have been so broad, chaotic and disorganized that in some cases, the federal government is scrambling to rehire employees who were just let go, including scientists monitoring the bird flu outbreak, people who manage the nation’s nuclear weapons, staff at an agency that runs a hydroelectric dam, and healthcare workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On Saturday, many federal workers received an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directing them to reply with a summary of what they accomplished in the past week. The email told them to write “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager” and gave them a deadline of 11:59 PM ET on Monday.
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform he owns.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk concluded.
OPM said in a statement, according to NPR, that the emails are “part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce,” adding that that “agencies will determine any next steps.”
Already, some federal departments and unions representing federal workers are directing employees who received the email to ignore it and not respond, Axios reported. Legal action to block firings of workers who don’t respond may also be forthcoming.
While Collins has expressed concern, she has not yet said whether she plans to hold a hearing addressing those concerns, which is well within her scope as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. Collins did vote against Trump’s controversial choice to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, a conspiracy theorist who was confirmed by Republicans in a 51-49 vote last week.
When asked whether she would take action against the administration for blocking spending approved by Congress, Collins suggested that it would be decided by the courts.
“I think it’s pretty clear that this violates Article One of the Constitution,” Collins said in an interview with Politico.
“You would see lawsuits” if the administration continues to interfere, she added. “A lot of these issues are going to end up in court.”
