Murray on New Report Finding Trump Wasted Billions in Taxpayer Dollars to Force Out Essential Federal Workers: “Most expensive way imaginable to make government worse.”

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today finding the Trump administration spent $9.5 billion paying federal workers not to work as part of its sweeping campaign to reduce the federal workforce. In many cases, after pushing out federal workers and paying them not to work, the Trump administration proceeded to rehire for their roles, and those new hires have been less qualified than the staff they replaced. “After promising to cut waste, Trump instead set billions upon billions in taxpayer dollars on fire to quite literally pay people not to do jobs they loved—from researching cancer cures to taking care of our National Parks, and so much else. “Trump spent billions to push out experienced and badly needed experts across government—this was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse. “Seniors, veterans, and families will wait longer for the help they count on for years to come, all thanks to Trump’s reckless mass firing campaign, which was endorsed by Republicans in Congress who cheered these cuts and refused to join Democrats to put a stop to it.” Vice Chair Murray and Senate Democrats have fought to put a stop to President Trump’s sweeping efforts to fire all manner of essential federal workers, including in negotiations over annual spending bills. But Republicans have rejected Democrats’ efforts to put a permanent stop to mass firings and workforce reductions through spending measures and voted against a number of amendments Democrats proposed to protect staffing levels in critical areas. ###