Federal Layoffs
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With signs made from crayons and colored markers, children rallied on Capitol Hill with their parents on Thursday, protesting layoffs and spending limits.
Isabelle Taft
Reporting from Washington
Facing widespread layoffs from the city’s biggest employer and what amounts to a billion-dollar budget cut over the next six months, residents of the District of Columbia expressed frustration at a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday morning, declaring themselves denizens of a city under siege.
A Republican spending bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30 would inflict major fiscal pain on the city where much of that government resides.
“This’ll just be an absolute economic disaster,” said Paul Strauss, one of the district’s nonvoting “shadow” senators, at a protest in the Senate office building attended by hundreds of defiant district residents.
The spending bill, which must pass the Senate by Friday to avoid a federal government shutdown, would essentially strip the district’s ability to spend more than $1 billion in revenue it already has on hand. That would include more than $300 million from the city’s education system, according to district officials.
“My school would probably go out of business,” said Mateo Roberts, 11.
He was one of many students in the district’s public schools, which had the day off for parent-teacher conferences, who joined their parents to protest the Republican spending plan. Senate Democrats have said they can’t support the House measure and have introduced a shorter-term spending bill that wouldn’t touch the district’s budget.
Sitting in the towering atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, the students made signs with crayons and colored markers in an attempt to appeal to senators — none of whom represent them. One read: “You cut my dad’s job and now you want to cut my school,” punctuated by four sad faces.
Many of the parents at the protest on Thursday morning have already seen their livelihoods threatened by the Trump administration’s government shake-up, which has put thousands of federal employees who live in the city out of work.
The current government spending bill could force layoffs at district schools, the Police Department and other critical city agencies, local officials say, compounding the economic troubles incited by the administration’s federal work force cuts.
Mingo Roberts, Mateo’s father, is among those who lost their jobs when Elon Musk’s effort to shrink the federal government targeted his employer, the U.S. Agency for International Development, in late January.
“It feels kind of like the city is under siege,” said Mr. Roberts, who has lived in the district for nearly 40 years.
Under federal law, Congress has to approve the district’s spending. That’s usually a routine step. But in their stopgap spending bill, House Republicans treated the city like a federal agency and forced it to keep its spending at 2024 levels, 7 percent below its budget for this year.
The move wouldn’t save the federal government any money, said Mr. Strauss. It would simply prevent the city from spending its own dollars raised from taxes, fees and “even the unpopular parking tickets that D.C. may be known for,” he said.
Around 11 a.m., a group of about 10 protesters walked into the office of Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana. A staffer asked if any Montana residents were among them, and then directed them to the hallway.
“We are residents of the District of Columbia,” said Miriam Goldstein, a parent of twin 9-year-olds. “We have no senators, so we are here to talk with you anyway.”
Her son, Solomon Wolff, flashed a handmade sign that read, “I like to play baseball,” and said the spending bill could mean cuts to youth sports. He was also worried about safety: “There will be less firefighters and police when fires start.”
His sister, Diana, pointed out that the money wouldn’t be redirected elsewhere if it wasn’t spent. “It’s from us,” she said. “They don’t have a right to take it away.”
Darren Sands contributed reporting from Washington.
Isabelle Taft is a reporter covering national news and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their career. More about Isabelle Taft
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