A bill was signed into law Thursday to give fired federal workers preference when applying for county jobs.
Last week, the county council unanimously approved the hiring preference for federal employees living in the county who were fired by the Trump Administration.
“It says loud and clear that these folks that you’ve illegally fired — we value their service,” County Council Vice President Will Jawando told MCM. Jawando is lead sponsor of the bill.
“We know that they have dedicated their lives to helping others… solving cancer, to protecting our air and our water, to supporting education, and these are people that, we want to take advantage of those skills and that dedication and that expertise here in Montgomery County.”
County Executive Marc Elrich signed the legislation at the Leggett Executive Office Building in Rockville. Veterans and people with disabilities will get first preference in hiring, then displaced federal workers get preference.
“To the extent that you’ve made these cuts, you’re actually destroying the basis of research in this country,” Elrich said about the Trump Administration. “You’re destroying the civil service that provides service to tens of millions of Americans. And you’re not doing it for efficiency, you’re doing it because you’re trying to destroy the government — we actually appreciate those people.”
Co-sponsors of the bill are Council President Kate Stewart, and Councilmembers Marilyn Balcombe, Andrew Friedson, Kristin Mink, and Laurie-Anne Sayles.
More than 70,000 federal employees are estimated to live in the county. More than 4,000 of those workers are estimated to have been affected by layoffs, according to Jawando.
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