McIver leading Democratic effort to reinstate fired federal workers

As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk work to slash the federal workforce, and as Republican majorities in Congress signal that they’re largely okay with it, congressional Democrats have struggled to find ways of pushing back beyond supporting the legal battles state attorneys general are waging. But one new legislative effort is underway to reinstate the federal workers who have been fired – and it’s being led by a New Jerseyan.

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), elected last year to represent New Jersey’s 10th district, introduced the Model Employee Reinstatement for Ill-advised Termination (MERIT) Act this morning, a bill that would rehire any probationary federal workers fired by Trump or by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and give them back pay for the time they spent out of a job.

“So far, more than 30,000 federal workers across more than 30 agencies have been unfairly fired,” McIver said at a press conference outside the Capitol this morning. “These firings jeopardize the safety of all Americans by getting rid of the people who keep our communities safe, our airports operational, our air and water clean, our veterans healthy, and more… I am all for government efficiency, but this does nothing to make our government more efficient.”

McIver was flanked at the press conference by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), two labor leaders, and two fired federal workers, but she said Democratic support for the MERIT Act runs much deeper than that; the bill already has 66 House co-sponsors and endorsements from six major labor unions, including the ​​American Federation of Labor and the American Federation of Government Employees.

But the fact that not a single one of the bill’s co-sponsors is a Republican likely dooms its chances of making it through Congress – let alone being signed into law by a president who initiated the federal worker firings in the first place. While a few Republicans have cautiously criticized some of the more high-profile firings, none seem likely to buck Trump in such a huge way by supporting legislation like the MERIT Act.

At her press conference today, though, McIver challenged her GOP colleagues to join her even if it meant standing up to their own party.

“In a Republican trifecta government, our options are limited, but that doesn’t mean we give up – it means we stand up,” McIver said. “Any Republican who cares about their constituents’ jobs and the safety of this country should stand up with us.”