COLUMBIA, Md. – Hundreds of Maryland constituents turned out at a town hall Tuesday night hosted by Maryland congressional Democrats to voice their concerns over the Trump administration’s efforts to break up federal agencies and cut government programs and jobs.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Rep. Sarah Elfreth and Howard County Executive Calvin Ball fielded questions from an anxious audience in the Howard County Community College gymnasium. Many queries focused on veterans and the Department of Education. The lawmakers asked the media to give audience members anonymity so they could speak freely.
President Donald Trump created on Jan. 20 the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, with the intention of slashing government funding to reduce taxes. The advisory body has done this primarily through shutting down federal agencies and cutting government jobs. Dozens of lawsuits are challenging the actions.
“A lot of representatives are talking at Trump,” an audience member told the Democrats, suggesting their party needs to respond to the conservative Project 2025 that has been the foundation of the administration’s program cancellations and mass firings of federal workers. “This document would present to the American people what the Democratic Party stands for.”
With nearly 30% of all federal employees claiming veteran status as of September 2024, according to FedScope, multiple questions asked were directed toward veterans’ well-being and benefits.
“What are each of you doing to help veterans who are negatively impacted by these mass layoffs?” an audience member asked.
“We’re dealing with a president and an administration that does not respect service and (does) not respect sacrifice,” Van Hollen answered. “As we work, or as you work, to get your jobs back, because you’ve been wrongfully terminated, you can pursue other opportunities. … You can pursue any of those alternatives without giving up or surrendering, in any way, your right to get back the job where you’ve been wrongfully fired.”
Ball also said Howard County hosted a career fair for veterans that featured more than 50 employers and provided resources for veterans who would like to start their own businesses.
Another audience member asked if veteran benefits would be attacked as well. Elfreth said she voted against a Republican-crafted House continuing resolution that would cut support to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits but explained that services provided to veterans will be affected by the mass layoffs.
“The president can say every single day that he’s not going to cut Social Security benefits, but if he slashes that workforce by 50 percent, as he has claimed he will, who is going to file that paperwork? Who’s going to cut those checks? Who is going to make sure those appeals are heard?” Elfreth said. “So, we are going to see a reduction in services, regardless if he swears up and down he’s not going to touch those benefits.”
The same audience member also questioned why Musk has the right to determine federal spending, given that he has billions of dollars in government contracts.
Van Hollen charged that the Trump administration’s efforts have nothing to do with government efficiency, but rigging the government for people like Musk and other billionaires.
“As … they’re shutting down things like the (Consumer Finance Protection Bureau), Elon Musk did get another billion-dollar contract from the federal government, the Trump administration, for Starlink,” Van Hollen said. “They are not complying with the conflict-of-interest laws, obviously, or the ethics laws.”
Van Hollen said Democrats are working on their own tax plan to show the American people that Trump’s plan is for the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Another audience member asked what the lawmakers are doing to hold the administration accountable, and then explained how his daughter is studying abroad in Spain but does not know whether she will receive promised funding due to the freezes on the Fulbright Program, which provides study-abroad scholarships.
“You in Congress have the power of the purse, they don’t,” the audience member said. “This is money that you in Congress allocated to the Department of State, and (the administration) decided that they don’t need to spend it.”
“There are people now, like your child, stranded overseas,” Van Hollen answered. “We are actually working, right now, on a constituent level to try to make sure we collect the situations, like you find yourself in, and so please make sure that we connect later on.”
Throughout the night Van Hollen, Alsobrooks and Elfreth expressed frustration that while they were determined to combat the Trump administration and directly address constituent concerns, Democrats are in the minority in the Senate and House, so their ability to act is limited.
“We will fight tooth and nail, but I will say, at the end of the day … we have a vote, and that vote outcome, of course, depends on who’s in the majority,” Van Hollen said. “We need to have all of you contact everybody you know in communities all over the country…We need to make sure that our colleagues are not only hearing from Elon Musk and Donald Trump, but that they’re hearing from their constituents from all sides of the aisle.”