In a March 12 letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the Democratic members of House Committe of Transportation and Infrastructure asked for more information following the firing of probationary employees at the U.S. Department of Transportation and urged Duffy to rehire the employees for safety purposes.
“To date, this administration has shown a callous disregard for the public servants that make up our federal workforce, which will have long-lasting consequences,” the letter said. “For example, the entire senior career leadership team at one of your safety agencies announced retirements last month representing more than 150 years of experience leaving the agency. Your decisions in the coming weeks in response to these directives stand to drastically reshape the Department and affect DOT’s ability to usher in the safe, world-class transportation and infrastructure the Administration supports. We urge you to hire back probationary employees and rethink your approach to workforce reductions.”
The letter, signed the 31 Democratic members of the committee, including the committee’s Ranking Member U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), asked Duffy to provide information on the impact of reductions in force decisions, the number of probationary employees who were let go as well as to rehire, and any planned reductions in force across the department’s agencies.
On March 13, U.S. District Judge Willia Alsup ruled that the Trump administration must rehire employees that had been fired and offer those employees job reinstatement within the next week. Alsup ruled the employees had been fired unlawfully.
The Trump administration has said it will appeal Alsup’s ruling.