Proposals were made by Democrats in the Minnesota Legislature to help federal employees who were singled out by the Trump administration’s spending cuts.
Tens of thousands of workers have been let go or given buyout offers. In an attempt to reduce the size of government, other positions have been removed as finances have been rolled back.
A number of these measures are being challenged in court.
Employees who voluntarily left government employment earlier this year were also offered “deferred resignations” by the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with a warning that their jobs could still be in jeopardy if they didn’t.
On Thursday, DFL lawmakers stated that they are working to safeguard Minnesota employees who accepted that DOGE arrangement, clarifying in the legislation that doing so does not entail terminating their employment due to being “misled.”
It would enable them to apply for unemployment insurance from the state. Generally speaking, quitting would render one ineligible.
“Imagine getting an email that says a ‘fork in the road,” and it says you can decide to retire early or face the consequences. These are the messages and the comments that I’m getting from constituents. Decide now your own fate, leave now or face the consequences,” Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown stated. “That is not how the government works.”
According to a different plan, veterans who are fired from their government jobs might receive a relocation compensation of $10,000 if they relocate to Minnesota.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which employs 8,700 people in Minnesota, has been hit by some of the federal cuts, and at least a dozen of its employees were recently let go.
“The last 80 days must have felt like a betrayal,” Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis stated. “Trump and Musk and their DOGE bros are jerking these men and women around who have dedicated their lives to serving our communities and the United States of America.”
At a time when the state budget is struggling, the program requests $6 million for such bonuses. In order to prevent a $6 billion deficit in the future, lawmakers are preparing for their own program cuts and have started negotiations for the next two-year spending plan.
Furthermore, in a divided state legislature, all of these initiatives would require support from the GOP.
When questioned about the DFL-backed proposals, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican from Cold Spring, stated that the state’s top goal is to avoid going bankrupt in the coming years.
“I think we need to more focus on the fact that we have a booming deficit over our budget because of what was spent over the last two years. Those are things that we are addressing right now to make sure we have a balanced budget,” she stated.
Last week, Governor Tim Walz announced that he had given his state agencies instructions to get ready for whatever federal grants they include in their budgets to be cut as well.
In Minnesota, he introduced a dashboard that tracks those dollars, including those that have already been terminated and other programs that are in jeopardy.
The Minnesota Department of Management and Budget reports that federal financing accounts for 35 percent of the state’s current two-year budget, which ends on June 30.
Source: CBS News
