(The Center Square) – Add Wisconsin to the list of states suing the Trump Administration over federal layoffs.
Gov. Tony Evers said the state joined with 19 other Democrat-led states to sue over the firings ordered by President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency Department.
“Republicans are messing with lives and livelihoods by recklessly firing federal workers and veterans, making drastic guts to popular programs kids, families, seniors, and farmers depend on, and hurting our kids and our schools by threatening to cut the Department of Education – all to help pay for tax cuts for rich millionaires and billionaires,” Evers said in a statement.
It’s not clear just how many federal workers in Wisconsin have lost their jobs. It’s also not clear how many more could lose their jobs.
As of last March, Wisconsin had about 18.000 federal employees in the state. The majority of them, nearly 11,000 work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last month, 10 people who worked at the VA in Milwaukee were fired.
“Our loved ones, friends, and neighbors who have bills to pay and families to feed have been fired for no fault of their own, including veterans, their spouses, and people dedicated to serving our veterans every day, people working to help fight the avian flu, and even people whose jobs are to help keep us safe in dangerous weather,” Evers added in his statement. “Republicans’ actions are wrong, illegal, and bad for our state and our country – that’s why we’re headed to court to try and stop them.”
Maryland’s Democratic attorney general is leading the lawsuit.
“[The] States are suffering significant and irreparable harm caused by the unannounced, unlawful, mass termination of federal employees who work or reside in our jurisdictions. These mass firings were executed illegally, without proper process or the statutorily required notice to [the] States,” the court filing reads. “States are now left to pick up the pieces of the shattered federal workforce – addressing numerous unemployment compensation requests and helping our residents seek new jobs as each new wave of terminations crests. This Court should halt the unlawful firings now.”
Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul echoed the same argument.
“The Trump administration has undermined important services and carelessly upended the lives of veterans, scientists, and many other public servants,” Kaul said. “These workers’ rights should be protected, and the Trump administration should be required to follow the law.”
