Agriculture
The Trump administration cut funding for schools and food banks and their partnerships with local farmers, leaving all three groups with budget shortfalls across Florida. From Jacksonville, to Tampa, and all the down to Miami, Florida schools, farmers and food banks are going without the help they need from the government to make it through the year.
Education
The Trump administration laid off almost half of the Department of Education, threatening school funding in Florida, especially for low-income school districts or children with special needs. One Florida parent with a special needs child described it as a “perfect storm” of “desperate worry for parents.”
Environment
The Trump administration fired employees working on restoration projects in the Florida Everglades, endangering a national park with around 1 million annual visitors contributing to Florida’s $128 billion tourism industry.
Health Care
The Trump administration cut 90 percent of funding to a program that helped Tampa Bay residents get health insurance. While Florida has led the nation in Affordable Care Act enrollments for the last few years, residents will now have to navigate health insurance enrollment without the assistance they need from the federal government.
Public Safety
The Trump administration fired NOAA workers in Florida, including weather forecasters and at least one hurricane hunter. During this year’s hurricane season, Florida residents may have less accurate predictions, endangering lives and property as fewer meteorologists struggle to work with less accurate data.
Veterans
The Trump administration has fired U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employees as well as veterans themselves across Florida. A former Navy pilot was fired from her role as flight director for NOAA’s hurricane hunters, while a disabled veteran was fired from his role making hiring practices more efficient in the VA system in Florida.
March 2025: Trump Administration Cut $500,000 Grant To South Florida Nonprofit That Prevents Housing Discrimination. According to WPTV, "President Donald Trump's administration is making another major cut to federal spending, one that is expected to significantly impact South Florida residents. This time, funding is being pulled from nonprofit organizations that enforce the Fair Housing Act and fight housing discrimination. In 2023 alone, more than 34,000 housing complaints were filed nationwide, with 75% of them submitted by private nonprofits, according to the National Fair Housing Alliance. The loss of federal funding has left organizations like the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County uncertain about their future. WATCH: Supervising attorney tells WPTV how cuts will impact housing The Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, which handles fair housing complaints and ensures tenant rights, recently learned that it is losing more than $500,000 in annual funding. 'We received an email on Friday morning stating that our contract with HUD had been terminated effective the day before, on February 27,' said Tequisha Myles, supervising attorney at Legal Aid. The organization has received federal funding for fair housing enforcement since 2001. Myles expressed shock at the sudden termination. [...] For years, Legal Aid has been investigating complaints, educating renters, and taking legal action when necessary across five counties. The loss of funding could lead to layoffs or a reduction in services." [WPTV, 3/4/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Froze Emergency Food And Shelter Assistance Program Funding To Miami Nonprofit That Helps At-Risk Families.
According to WFOR, "The Advocacy Network on Disabilities, which has been instrumental in supporting families in Miami-Dade County, has run out of money after vital federal funding from FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) was suspended. This delay in funding raises critical concerns about the future of families already on the brink of homelessness. [...] However, the situation has taken a turn. The Advocacy Network on Disabilities, which typically receives around $30,000 annually from a larger $1 million pool of federal funds allocated to several Miami-Dade County agencies, was expecting to receive nearly half a million dollars in February. But those funds have now been placed on hold. The hold on funding comes as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conduct additional reviews of grant allocations. According to a letter sent to affected agencies, the funding has been delayed to ensure that it aligns with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem's directives. 'The next person that calls us next week will get nothing,' said Ire Diaz, President and CEO of the Advocacy Network on Disabilities. Diaz is concerned that without the federal funds, families in need will be left without the support they depend on. 'Families will be homeless, and there will be people who will not be in shelters, they will be under I-95,' Diaz warned. " [WFOR, 3/12/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Spending Cuts Caused 28 Tractor-Trailer Shipments Of Food For Brevard County Food Bank To Be Cancelled. According to Florida Today, "Brevard groups dedicated to ensuring the county's most vulnerable residents have food are witnessing a surge in need — just as they are starting to feel the harsh effects of federal government budget cuts. Twenty-eight tractor trailer trucks traveling with food to local Florida communities have been halted, without notice. 'The hits keep coming. This is a major blow,' said David Brubaker, president/CEO of The Sharing Center of Central Brevard, after he was told that the federal program that provides emergency food assistance has been cut through the rest of the year, leading to the trucks deliveries being stopped. 'We are very concerned about how all these cuts will affect our programs and our ability to meet the need in the coming months and years,' Brubaker said." [Florida Today, 3/28/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Cut Federal Programs That Provided $65 Million For Florida Schools And Food Banks To Purchase Produce From Local Farmers. According to the Pensacola News Journal, "President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb federal spending have hit the Department of Agriculture, which has cut over $1 billion in funding aimed at helping schools and food banks purchase from local farmers. States recently learned about the cuts, which will cut funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) in 2025, the organization School Nutrition Association said in a news release. Florida school partners were slated to receive an estimated $42,583,882 in 2025 from the LFS program. Meanwhile, the state was expecting to receive a combined total of $22,439,038 from the LFPA programs, according to the USDA website." [Pensacola News Journal, 3/11/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration NIH Cuts Could Cause Florida Universities, Research Institutes, And Companies To Lose $122 Million In Funding. According to a New York Times’ analysis, the Trump Administration’s proposal to cap NIH indirect funding costs at 15% could cause Florida colleges, research institutes, and companies to lose $122 million in funding. [New York Times, 2/13/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired 10 National Park Service Archaeologists In Tallahassee. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, "A group of National Park Service Southeast Regional archaeologists now must begin digging themselves out of a career abyss that President Donald Trump’s budget reductions plunged them into. Up until Valentine's Day, the 10 archaeologists provided services for national parks spread across nine southeastern states, a massive region that includes all the states south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, except for West Virginia." [Tallahassee Democrat, 2/20/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Cancelled $16 Million Grant That Supported Florida A&M’s Pharmacy School And Biomedical Research Center. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, "Florida A&M University’s pharmacy school is looking for much more support than usual during this year's FAMU Day of Giving after a $16.3 million grant was terminated amid the latest string of federal funding cuts. But the university is fighting to get the funds back. In a Monday letter ahead of the annual fundraising event Thursday morning to Friday afternoon, Seth Ablordeppey – interim dean of FAMU’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health – said the multi-million-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was cancelled March 21. The termination of the grant, which supported the pharmacy school and FAMU’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program, comes after its renewal last year for a nearly five-year period that would have ended in March 2029. [...] The RCMI program was established in 1985 under FAMU’s pharmacy school through a grant from the NIH as a congressionally mandated program to support minority institutions, according to the university. In 2012, the program was transferred to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the NIH. [...] The funding was awarded to support new faculty hires and enhanced research in key areas such as artificial intelligence, bioinformatics and cancer biology,' Beard said in a statement sent to the Tallahassee Democrat Tuesday. 'For nearly 40 years, faculty and graduate students have relied on this center to conduct biomedical and health research. Through the center, faculty and students work on projects that focus on research topics such as the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer as well as colorectal cancer disparities in African Americans compared to other racial or ethnic groups." [Tallahassee Democrat, 4/2/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Issued Executive Order Calling For Reduction To Federal Agency That Previously Provided $11 Million In 2024 To Florida Libraries And Museums. According to Orlando Weekly, "Last month, the Trump administration issued an executive order demanding a downsizing of various federal agencies, including the Institute for Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides 'the majority of federal library funds' to library systems and museums nationwide, including the Orlando Science Center, through grants. Nearly all of the small agency’s staff of about 70 employees, represented by the American Federation of Government Employees Union Local 3403, were placed on paid administrative leave this week. 'The status of previously awarded grants is unclear,' the union shared in a statement. 'Without staff to administer the programs, it is likely that most grants will be terminated.' The move, potentially threatening the future of beloved arts and culture programs, is part of a cost-cutting initiative Trump has undertaken in step with his billionaire-led Department of Government Efficiency to reduce 'government bureaucracy' and eliminate what his administration views as wasteful spending. [...] State and local institutions throughout Florida received $11.4 million in grants through the IMLS this fiscal year alone, with the bulk of that awarded to libraries, educational institutions, and museums in Miami-Dade, Broward and Leon Counties. But institutions in Central Florida could be affected, too, including the Orlando Science Center, awarded $119,105 this year for its science literacy program, 'Science Matters.' Previously, the Science Center has also received grant funding through IMLS for K-5 school field trips for students in Orange County Public Schools, professional development workshops for Science Center staff, and other efforts to improve and expand their programming for accessibility and cultural competency." [Orlando Weekly, 4/2/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Hiring Freeze Cancelled Internships From Florida College Students. According to WUSF, "University of Miami student Jackson Kuster spent months pouring his heart into extensive federal internship applications. Over winter break, he interviewed with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and landed a position in its administrative branch. It’s the only internship offer he received. Just a few weeks later, his supervisor informed him that the offer had been rescinded in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 90-day federal hiring freeze. It's all part of the president's plan under the Department of Government Efficiency — led by Elon Musk — to make 'large-scale reductions in force' of federal employees and freeze trillions of dollars in federal grant funds. 'I read through the entire executive order when it came out, and I was like, this isn't looking good for me,' Kuster told WLRN. 'When I got the email, I wasn't shocked. I was mostly disappointed.' [...] "Addie Murphy, a health science major at UM, recently landed a position as a research assistant at the Miami Veterans Association. She had just finished all the paperwork and blood tests required to start working when she received an email. Her job, too, had been cancelled. 'I was very nervous about what this meant for my position since I love my position and love getting to do research,' she said. The freeze has not prevented Murphy from volunteering her time at the VA, but it removed her credentials, official employment status and source of income." [WUSF, 3/31/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Cancelled $7 Million Grant To Address Teacher Shortages In Clay County Schools. According to WJAX, "A $7 million U.S. Department of Education grant designed to help address the teacher shortage in our area through a program at the University of North Florida was just defunded. That grant was intended to help address several issues, including the teacher shortages in North Florida, specifically in Clay County District Schools. "In 2022, UNF’s Silverfield College of Education and Human Services was awarded a $7 million partnership grant for Project PREP. The federal grant came from the U.S. DOE. The goal was to renew the educator pipeline in collaboration with Clay County District Schools and UNF’s College of Arts and Sciences to address the critical teacher shortage in our area. However, that goal was derailed last week when the grant was defunded." [WJAX, 2/19/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Layoffs At Department Of Education Sent “Shockwaves” Through South Florida, Especially Parents Of Children With Disabilities. According to WTVJ, "President Trump campaigned on shutting down the Department of Education. However, seeing it happen, with the department laying off about half of its workforce, sends shockwaves through the local education community and through many families. The DOE provides about a billion dollars combined to the Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe County school districts. Much of that money goes to support Title One schools, which are schools where at least 40% of the students are from low-income families. Another major chunk of funding provides resources for children who have disabilities. 'I think parents of students with disabilities are absolutely on the edge right now,' said Jacqui Luscombe, who is one of those parents. She chairs Broward’s ESE Advisory Council, and Luscombe is extremely concerned about where the cuts to the DOE might lead. 'When your child’s education and rights and future are at stake it all combines into this perfect storm of just desperate worry for parents,' Luscombe said. " [WTVJ, 3/12/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Fired Every Staffer In Office That Manages Program Helping 140,000 Households In Florida Pay Their Heating And Cooling Bill. According to The Miami Herald, "The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a program that has helped tens of thousands of low-income Floridians keep the power and AC on, including during potentially dangerous extreme heat waves. This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services laid off 10,000 employees, another slash to the federal workforce following a string of controversial job cuts under the Elon Musk-directed Department of Government Efficiency. The layoffs included the entire staff behind what’s known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which helps states secure funds from the federal program. [...] The program has been continuously running since the 1980s, and it helps about 6 million households a year cover electricity costs if they can’t afford them. Last year, around 140,000 households in Florida received some $117 million in federal funding. Those funds, Wolfe said, help some of Florida’s poorest families stay connected to the energy grid and keep cool during periods of extreme heat." [Miami Herald, 4/4/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Fired At Least 11 Employees At National Wildlife Refuges In Florida. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, "The reported reinstatements come as a clearer picture was emerging of how many Fish and Wildlife employees at national wildlife refuges in Florida had lost their jobs. At least 11 were fired, including three at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee NWR; two each at the St. Marks and Crystal River NWRs; and one each at the 'Ding' Darling, Florida Panther and Crocodile Lake NWRs. Another new regional hire based in Miami also was terminated." [Tallahassee Democrat, 3/20/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Cancelled Lease For Jacksonville Office That Hosts Everglades Restoration Team. According to the Miami Herald, "In its bid to cut costs, the Department of Government Efficiency has ended leases around the country, including at the Florida office staffed with hundreds of federal workers focused on Everglades restoration and maintaining beaches across the state. The federal government moved to end its lease for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Jacksonville, headquarters of the Jacksonville district and home to about 800 of the nearly 1,100 Florida-based employees. [...] The Corps’ biggest job in Florida is Everglades restoration, an ongoing multibillion-dollar effort that is the largest environmental restoration project in the world. But the agency also handles everything from adding new sand to skinny beaches to regulating development alongside rivers and bays." [Miami Herald, 3/3/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired 2 Employees At Crystal River Manatee Refugee. According to the Tampa Bay Times, "CRYSTAL RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — Brier Ryver had just spent the workday with five dozen schoolchildren on the shores of Kings Bay, teaching them the importance of Florida’s wild places, when the rumors began. Talk had spread that job cuts could be coming to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that oversees the nation’s only dedicated refuge for manatees where Ryver was hired in April as a park ranger. Eight full-time employees, including Ryver, managed the 32,000 acres of wildlife refuges on Florida’s Gulf coast, which draw hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. Any cuts would be detrimental to the team already juggling permits, manatee rescues, outreach, volunteer coordination and whatever else the day might bring, Ryver thought. [...] The next day, Ryver was invited to a work call with hundreds of other federal wildlife service staff. They were all being let go. Ryver was one of two full-time refuge employees — a quarter of the staff — fired amid the Trump administration’s push to trim the federal workforce and get rid of 'waste.' Also let go was Emily Jung, who helped oversee visitor services. All told, the Interior Department has laid off roughly 2,300 people in recent days." [Tampa Bay Times, 2/25/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Terminated Grant That Allowed Palm Beach Nonprofit To Improve Local Environment. According to WPBF, "A Palm Beach County nonprofit has become a victim of the widespread cuts in the federal government. Community Greening announced Thursday that a three-year grant they received from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 has been canceled. Community Greening has been around since 2016 and works with local governments, corporations and residents to plant trees on both public and private lands. Over the years, Community Greening estimates they’ve planted more than 23,000 trees, mostly in Palm Beach County. The grant from the Environmental Protection Agency was allowing them to do their work in the Glades communities. 'Being able to go on a larger countywide area, and especially a place like the Glades, a place that truly needs trees, probably has the least trees of anywhere in the entire county, was a really awesome opportunity,' said Josh Weiner, director of communications and engagement for Community Greening. Now, that 'awesome opportunity' is over." [WPBF, 4/4/25]
April 2025: Trump Administration Fired At Least 12 Employees At Everglades National Park. According to WFOR, "Federal budget cuts are taking a toll on South Florida's national parks, resulting in staff reductions and raising concerns about the visitor experience. The cuts come as President Donald Trump pushes to shrink the size of the federal government. Everglades National Park, a major draw for tourists and nature lovers, has already laid off at least 12 employees." [WFOR, 2/26/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired Employees Working On Florida Everglades Restoration Project. According to the Miami Herald, "At the research center at Everglades National Park, one of handful of such centers around the country, half the team working on Everglades restoration efforts is leaving, two sources said. Three staffers were cut and three took early retirement, they said. 'We’re worried about them going in and deleting everything,' said one scientists who is leaving and worries that valuable information will be lost. The cuts come at a critical time for the center, with Everglades restoration work speeding up under record spending. Among the center’s missions is to ensure that changes outside the park don’t harm the wildlife and sawgrasses marshes, seagrass meadows and other habitat inside the park." [Miami Herald, 2/26/25]
March 2025: Fired NOAA Flight Director Warned Trump Layoffs Could Lead To Less Accurate Hurricane Evacuation Warnings. According to Spectrum News 13, "However, Englert said it hurts even more because she believes the public will be impacted, too. 'NOAA — we collect data,' she said. 'We are the keepers of a lot of that data. However, it is open sourced. It’s available to the public. This is everything from fishery, ocean, everything from your atmospheric daily weather to severe storms. 'So, it’s really to the benefit of the public as far as really understanding the environment you’re in and how NOAA affects you on a day-to-day basis, really.' Now, with more than 800 job cuts at NOAA nationwide, including in Lakeland, Englert said she’s concerned about the upcoming hurricane season. The Aircraft Operations Center houses NOAA’s planes, which provide live data during storms. 'Ultimately, because of the layoffs and the cuts, you’re potentially looking at not being able to complete all of the mission objectives — or even the missions themselves — as far as the required flights that we’ve had in order to incorporate this data into the models,' Englert said. This, she said, could lead to inaccurate information. 'It’s going to result in more uncertainty as well as downstream effects such as greater areas of evacuations, greater areas of emergency response and planning, as well as greater rebuild,' she said. " [Spectrum News 13, 3/10/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Cut Funding To Program That Helped Tampa Bay Residents Get Health Insurance. According to the Tampa Bay Times, "It will be tougher for more families to get help beginning in August when the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding for the navigator program by 90% takes effect, Roders Turner said. Funding for the national program, which pays for trained workers to assist people find insurance plans, will be cut from $97 million to $10 million. The cuts could hit hardest in Florida and Tampa Bay. The state has led the nation in enrollment in the Affordable Care Act for the past few years. A record 4.7 million residents signed up for health insurance plans through the federal market place this year. That was a source of pride for Covering Kids and Families, a nonprofit based at the University of South Florida. It received roughly $13 million, the largest navigator award in the nation, to help residents across the state find affordable health care. " [Tampa Bay Times, 2/19/25]
February 2025: South Florida 14-Year-Old Cancer Survivor On Trump NIH Research Cuts: “I Can’t Even Express How Mad I Am.” According to WTVJ, "The announcement came out of the blue late on Friday afternoon. The National Institutes of Health said it was making a big cut to medical research grants, capping what is known as indirect costs of research to 15% of the total funding awarded, to match what most private donors pay. Until now, NIH grants usually paid 50 to 60% of the overhead of running a research lab, so the cutback has sent shockwaves through the medical research world. For the Kleppen family, it hit like a punch to the gut. 14-year-old Jake Kleppen is an 8th grader at Silver Trail Middle School and an outspoken advocate for childhood cancer research. He hasn’t been able to physically attend school since he was diagnosed with leukemia last month, his second bout with cancer in his young life. 'Something that no child should have to experience, really, all kids should have the opportunity to go to school and complain about regular kid stuff, like how do I skip this homework and all that,' Jake said. Battling leukemia now, Jake knows the cancer drill. When he was eight years old, he beat Ewing’s Sarcoma. 'I had basically no childhood, it was spent fighting that cancer and it traumatized me,' Jake said. [...] Jake will talk about childhood cancer to anyone who will listen. Last year, he joined other cancer-surviving kids in Washington to lobby Congress for more research. 'We thought that would reach them, and it’s very disappointing that nothing really came of that, in fact, the contrary, they’re pulling funding,' Marisel Kleppen said. 'I can’t even express how mad I am,' Jake added." [WTVJ, 2/10/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired Tampa Bay Scientist Improving Hurricane Tracking And Preparedness. According to the Tampa Bay Times, "As thousands of Floridians fled beach communities before Hurricane Helene, Michael Slattery rushed toward them. In the final hours before Tampa Bay’s worst storm in a century, Slattery was on Madeira Beach drilling pressure sensors deep into the sand. The data collected from these devices helped local governments, first responders and the public better understand how hurricane storm surge threatens low-lying coastal cities — including in Pinellas County. The U.S. Geological Survey’s team of scientists, including Slattery, helped accurately predict that Pinellas beaches would be overwashed by surge, sending thousands of pounds of sand into homes and businesses. Slattery, who has 20 years of scientific research experience and was a University of Tampa professor for nearly a decade, was fired Feb. 14 amid the expansive push by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut the federal workforce. [...] Slattery was in the middle of working with several county officials, state experts and condo associations to improve the agency’s forecasting tool that gives emergency officials a six-day head start on predicting how an impending hurricane could damage beach communities. He was also conducting coastal surveys to better understand how Sand Key beach and Madeira Beach change over time and working with partners in the Florida Keys to better predict how coral reefs affect storm surge." [Tampa Bay Times, 3/7/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired Miami Scientist Responsible For Making Storm Forecasts Accurate. According to NBC 6 South Florida, "Andy Hazelton is one of the DOGE victims. He isn’t the guy you see on television telling you where the hurricane’s going, he’s one of the NWS employees who work on making the forecast models as accurate as they can be. Now he’s gone. 'It kinda hit me very heavily, I mean I think we all thought it was possible,' Hazelton said. Possible, they thought, but not likely, because their work is vital for public safety. Hazelton was at the National Hurricane Center, working on improving the GFS storm tracking model, when the email came in. He was fired after working more than eight years with NOAA, as a contract employee and recently as a federal staffer, still in his probationary period. " [NBC 6 South Florida, 2/28/25]
February 2025: Miami, Florida, Residents Were Laid-Off As Part Of Trump Administration’s NOAA Firings. According to the Miami Herald, "Hurricane and climate researchers in Miami were hit in the latest wave of cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The mass layoffs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — more than 600, according to the former agency head — include at least one high-profile meteorologist in Miami and another charged with integrating artificial intelligence into climate and weather predictions." [Miami Herald, 2/28/25]
February 2025: Trump Administration Fired Hurricane Hunter. According to NBC 6 South Florida, "Kerri Englert is featured in a video on the NOAA website. She is, or was, a hurricane hunter, the crew member who gathers data during those daring flights into the eye of the storm, until she got the pink slip yesterday. 'I think that I was initially in a state of shock, as well as perhaps a bit of denial, I think I still am to some extent,' Englert said. " [NBC 6 South Florida, 2/28/25]
March 2025: Trump Administration Fired Lakeland, Florida, Navy Veteran Who Directed NOAA Weather Collection Flights. According to Spectrum News 13, "Like many who have had the chance to fly into the heart of a storm, Kerri Englert says being a flight director for NOAA was a dream come true. 'It was 10 years in the making for me to get to that position,' she said. 'I left the active-duty Navy to go back to school to get meteorology credentials so I could pair up what I did in the Navy as a mission commander in an aircraft and my meteorology passion as well.' The Navy veteran began working at Lakeland’s NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in 2023. Over the past few months, she heard rumors about the possibility of federal layoffs but didn’t believe it would happen. It wasn’t until she received a termination letter that reality began to set in." [Spectrum News 13, 3/10/25]
February 2025: South Florida-Based Disabled Veteran Was Fired By Trump Administration From Role In VA Working To Make Agency More Efficient. According to WPTV, "From medals, to photographs, to commemorative plaques, David Pasquino's office is full of reminders of nearly two decades of service to the United States. Pasquino traveled the world during his 18 years in the Army, which included two combat tours. 'I made some of the best friendships, I had some of the greatest experiences of my life. Some not so great — yeah, and I wouldn't trade a day of it,' Pasquino said. [...] Now, Hobe Sound is home. It's where Pasquino spent about 11 months working remotely in human resources for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 'Working at the Department of Veterans Affairs was the perfect opportunity for me to give back to veterans and continue to serve,' Pasquino said. [...] His team's role was to make hiring more efficient at the agency, after the government ended its contract with a private vendor. 'We were able to clear a two-year backlog in about three months,' Pasquino said. 'We reduced the time to hire from approximately 130 days down to about 62 days in an 11-month period.' On Thursday evening, Pasquino described an 'itch' he had to check his work email. His employment was terminated, effective immediately. The firing came despite positive performance evaluations, which Pasquino shared with WPTV. 'It feels like we don't matter,' Pasquino said. 'Our lives, our service — you know, I'm a 100% disabled combat veteran, and the sacrifices that I made don't matter, because it's just, I'm an arbitrary number.'" [WPTV, 2/17/25]
February 2025: Local Union Leader Pleaded With President Trump To Visit Tampa VA And See Benefit Workers Provide.
February 2025: Trump Administration Laid Off Three Workers At Tampa, Florida, VA Center. According to WTSP, "From mass layoffs to deferred resignations, the federal workforce has been reduced by nearly 90,000 employees, since President Trump took office almost a month ago. That includes at least three in Tampa Bay who were probationary employees for Veterans Affairs, including workers at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, according to Christopher Young, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 547 acting president " [WTSP, 2/18/25]