WASHINGTON — Maryland Democratic Rep. Sarah Elfreth introduced legislation Tuesday that would strengthen protections for probationary federal workers who were recently fired by the Trump administration.
The Protect Our Probationary Employees Act aims to ensure that recently fired probationary federal employees would be able to reclaim their seniority they accrued from their previous jobs if they were rehired by the government.
“This challenge that led to this bill impacts every district…red and blue districts alike,” Elfreth told Capital News Service after a press conference at the U.S. Capitol.
The bipartisan bill was co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Michael Baumgartner of Washington and Jeff Hurd of Colorado.
Elfreth said the firings also impacted those who were recently promoted and had joined as second- and third-career professionals.
“If they were promoted, that’s the other kind of story that’s getting lost in this mix right now,” Elfreth said. “People who are mid-career did (a) really great job, earned a promotion. They started their probationary clocks again and they were victims of this mass firing as well.”
Federal employees are subjected to a probationary period during their first year of service, according to the code of federal regulations.
Federal rules also state that an employee who has been reinstated to a position in the same agency is not required to serve a new probationary period. However, the employee would need to complete a probationary period when there is a period of time between the old and new positions.
Elfreth was joined by Sen. Van Hollen, D-Maryland, who introduced the companion bill with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, in the Senate.
Van Hollen said the firing of probationary employees by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had nothing to do with employee performance or government efficiency but rather about “rigging the government for people like Elon Musk (who heads the department).”
Elfreth’s Democratic colleagues from Maryland, Reps. Steny Hoyer and Johnny Olszewski, and Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, who are cosponsoring the bill, also attended the Capitol press conference. Maryland Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Glenn Ivey are among other numerous co-sponsors.
Federal probationary employees who were recently terminated from their jobs shared their stories with reporters.
Anthony Johnson II, 25, worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay office in Annapolis, placing scientific buoys and conducting fish monitoring in certain areas of the watershed.
On Feb. 27, he received an email saying he was terminated from working at the agency because he was “not fit for the job” and his skills do not fit the agency’s current needs.
Johnson graduated with a masters degree from the University of Miami and had completed eight internships in the last few years, including stints with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps.
He said the lack of workers would be detrimental to collecting data used by organizations to monitor water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac and Choptank Rivers.
“I hope that this bill allows other federal workers to actually be reinstated back into their job or their position. We’re able to do the important work that everybody was doing at the time,” Johnson told CNS. “And I hope it happens soon.”
A former visual information specialist at the National Park Service, Madelyn De Manincor said she lost her dream job on Feb. 14 and was faced with having her health insurance cut off.
“I was crushed to realize the surgery that would greatly improve the quality of my life fell outside that window,” she said. She went on to receive the surgery last week.
She said the job terminations were illegal, unfair, cruel and inhumane.
“We were reduced to names on a list and numbers on a spreadsheet. We are real people,” she said.
Elfreth, elected to the House last November, is the daughter of two civil servants. Her district includes more than 44,000 federal workers.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement: “This bill, if enacted would allow hardworking civil servants to return to the important work of serving the American people. These employees who joined the federal government were suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work.”
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