Congressman Paul Tonko spoke with laid-off federal employees during an Albany roundtable session on government cuts Friday.
Tonko met with federal workers at the headquarters of the Albany Community Action Partnership, men and women whose jobs were lost or are threatened via President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. Tonko brands it an "unconstitutional overreach." He says thousands of Americans have already been fired or furloghed under DOGE.
"It's anything but efficient. It's reckless and it's cruel," said Tonko.
The Democrat from New York’s 20th district says DOGE's sweeping cuts will delay tax refunds, disrupt food benefits, threaten clean air and water, and harm public education, consumer protection, Medicaid and more.
"Let me just say I came from a meeting just moments ago where they're talking about destruction of the United States Postal Service, wiping out the board so they can hire a new team," Tonko said. "And the goal has always been to privatize. And so it's a sneak attack. Then I see what they're doing with Social Security, with the rumors of 50% cut."
Some panelists told Tonko how suddenly losing their jobs upended their lives. One woman says she unexpectedly found herself out of work for the first time in her career, while others expressed uncertainties about the days ahead.
Dr. Elizabeth Fisher works for a local non-profit that employs around 40 scientists working on discovering treatments for devastating diseases.
"We've had two grants personally at our institution that have already been affected by these delays and cuts," Fisher said. "One of them, we probably got the top score in that scientific review session, it was a specific grant working on developing better understanding for neurodegenerative, for Alzheimer's disease, and the group didn't meet. We have no idea if we're going to get that money. And you know, we were in a growth phase for our institution wanting to hire more people in the area to really support this work."
As panelists told the Congressman their individual stories, Tonko noted worry and confusion seem to rule the day.
"We're going to do our best to save a lot of these programs," said Tonko. "Because they were growing jobs and they were addressing the environment. There are still communities in this country that need EPA assistance for safe drinking water. There are communities that are not attaining clean air stats that need the EPA involvement.”
Tonko holds onto hope that DOGE cuts can be reversed and vows to do everything in his power to halt the chaos.
"...Continue to take this to the courts and continue to raise public awareness and public information exchange and encouraging public outcry. Will be having those forums. We'll have all these press conferences that we're putting together to draw, you know, attention to these cuts as we get them. I mean, there's a lot out there looming that hasn't happened yet," Tonko said.
