Government agency to review health and safety effects of Trump's mass firings

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 5:15 a.m. ET March 24,2 025


WASHINGTON — An independent government watchdog agency will probe how President Donald Trump's mass firings of early-tenure employees affect on air travel, the spread of diseases, nuclear safety, food safety, veterans health care, the opioid epidemic, and the ability to respond to floods and wildfires.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog agency that investigates, audits, and evaluates government operations for Congress, said it would open the investigation in response to a March 6 request from a group of 11 Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

States, workers, unions, nonprofits, and an independent watchdog have all brought legal challenges to the Trump administration's firings of tens of thousands of federal employees in their probationary periods, and federal judges have reinstated many. But little information is available about the downstream effects of having fewer workers.

"Rather than make government more efficient, these firings appear to have created massive inefficiencies and put the American people at risk," the Democratic senators wrote. They called the Trump administration’s approach "indiscriminate" and pointed to their attempts to rehire nuclear safety and food safety workers after the firings.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/24/donald-trump-mass-firings-government-accountability-office-review/82598395007/

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Link to original GAO investigation request PRESS RELEASE - Warren, Senators Call for Investigation into Trump’s Purge of Workers Protecting Americans’ Health and Safety

Link to request LETTER (PDF) - https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_from_senator_warren_to_gao_re_health__safety.pdf

[jmbar2]

1. Excellent !

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. Guess which agency will be the next to be gutted. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Except that the GAO is NOT an "Executive Branch" agency but one that is overseen BY CONGRESS

Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 Public Law 67–13

(snip)

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (BAA 1921) was signed into law by President Warren G. Harding on June 10, 1921. The law was the first legislative attempt at giving the United States a unified method of collecting and distributing resources for the functioning of the government. The BAA 1921 mandated the president annually submit a unified request for budgetary resources to the Congress. It created the “Bureau of the Budget”, which later became the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Bureau gave the President the information necessary to prepare the budget proposal. The law also established the General Accounting Office (later renamed the “Government Accountability Office) to assist Congress in overseeing the President and the Executive Branch. By giving the President a more significant role in determining budgetary priorities, the BAA 1921 set the stage for later efforts by Congress to increase it’s formal role in the budget process.

(snip)

PDF of the law here - https://maint.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/67th-congress/Session%201/c67s1ch18.pdf

[lark]

4. Next up - DOGE fires head of GAO!

Their corruption will continue unabated per master Pooty.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. They can't. GAO is a CONGRESSIONAL office, NOT an Executive one.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3424783

[lark]

6. Watch them still try. Birthright citizenship is a direct Constitutional mandate and they are trying to end that too!

They don't give a shit about the law, we all know that!

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Well they can challenge the Constitutional Amendments

and dick around with Executive Branch employees (at their own peril).

But they can't "fire" an employee in the Legislative Branch. Otherwise, they can go on and fire the Speaker of the House.

[lark]

8. They don't think they are in peril - they know the fascists at SCOTUS won't allow them to be hurt.

They do what they want and SCOTUS will sit on it's thumbs and do nothing to stop him - its what's coming either with this or something else, but it is coming IMO.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. The GOP has used the GAO to harass any Democratic administrations

(hint - I had worked under 6 Presidents and have been interviewed as part of a GAO audit)

Congress would need to repeal that law and they have had difficulties amending it as it is (and that is recently). But I don't think they are ready to have themselves "dissolved".... at least yet. Too many perks and trappings of power there.