John,

I want to talk to you about RIFs — also known as a Reduction in Force, a fancy term for the mass firing of federal workers.

Russell Vought, Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the key architect behind Project 2025, is bragging about how he plans to lay off thousands more federal employees.

They’re trying to blame Democrats and the government shutdown — even though they control everything — so they can do what they have always dreamed of doing, tearing down and destroying the government. So that their wealthy patrons can control everything. Because the truth is — there is nothing about the shutdown that requires the president to fire people.

Yes, some people are being temporarily furloughed until the shutdown ends.

Yes, Trump is threatening to withhold their back pay.

And yes, the law requires them to be paid once a shutdown ends.

But firing all these federal workers is blatantly illegal. The largest number of firings from this administration took place well before the shutdown even started. They’ve already fired over 50,000 federal workers in the first nine months of this administration, and pushed out over 200,000 federal workers in total.

Now, I take personal interest in this because so many Californians are affected. In fact, we have more federal workers in California than in any other state. But all of us are going to be affected.

The firings at the CDC mean you are not as protected from deadly viruses.

The firings at the Forest Service mean we are more vulnerable to wildfires.

The firings at the FDA mean you are not as safe from dangerous products being put on grocery store and drug store shelves.

The firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau mean you are not as protected from being ripped off by large corporations.

These RIFs are going to affect everyone — but Donald Trump couldn’t care less about the harm he is causing. In fact, he’s reveling in it. He just wants to inflict more pain on a group of people who he believes didn’t vote for him in the last election.

But John, I am standing up for our federal workers from the Senate, and I will continue to fight for them, no matter what. Please chip in to help me keep up this fight.

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Thank you, and more soon.

— Adam