Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- U.S. Rep. Blake Moore expressed empathy for federal workers amid the push by President Donald Trump's administration to reduce the workforce.
- In a telephonic town hall meeting, he also lamented the lack of collaboration by Elon Musk's team with a House body formed to assist in reshaping the federal government.
- Moore, a Republican from Utah, also address the Russia-Ukraine war.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Blake Moore says he understands the frustration and confusion of the many federal workers in the 1st District and beyond.
They've been reaching out to him as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes to slash the federal workforce, and he, in turn, has been reaching out to administration representatives. He worries about the "demonization" of federal workers, he said during a town hall Tuesday he held via telephone, and has conveyed that to the president's team.
"I get the frustration. I've been very, very frustrated at this alongside you. Again, it's more real for you than it even is for me, but we have been working very hard to communicate that that is not the right approach," he said. While businessman Elon Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency, an adviser to Trump, has pushed to cut broad swaths of federal employee pools, Moore said he favors a more "measured and surgical" approach, as touted by one of the callers who spoke.
Moore serves as co-chairman of the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Caucus in the U.S. House, formed to work with Musk's group in reshaping the U.S. government. But the lawmaker, a Republican from Utah, expressed his own frustration in the group's apparently stymied efforts in working with Musk's organization.
"There hasn't been much communication directly with us over the last, basically, three or four weeks, since it kind of kicked off after inauguration," he said, referencing the Jan. 20 inauguration of Trump to his second presidential term. "So I'll be very candid — I've been frustrated that we could be doing this far more collaboratively, and we haven't. So that's why I've made it very, very known to the administration — this is counterproductive and ... it hasn't gone the direction that we would like to see it."
Moore also lamented the tone of the debate as Trump and Musk have pressed to downsize the federal government, meant at least in part to reduce federal spending. "We don't need to be vilifying federal workers. These folks want to be part of a solution, and alienating them is not the right direction," he said.
The 1st District has an outsized pool of federal workers compared to other congressional districts around the country, nearly 6% of the overall workforce. Notably, there are many IRS workers in the district while Hill Air Force Base, too, employs a large pool of federal employees. With many probationary workers, those less than one to two years on the job, let go or to be let go as part of Musk's efforts, federal workers and their backers demonstrated last week in Ogden underscoring the frustration and anger of some.
Over the weekend, many federal employees received emails, supported by Musk, directing them to identify five things they did on the job and send the list to their supervisors, causing more friction. Moore alluded to that and noted the example of a friend in the federal workforce who's already working overtime. To have to write such an email "when there's already an annual review process for the work that our federal employees do — I don't agree with that approach, and I think that it is counterproductive," Moore said.
Moore, who took questions from those calling in for about an hour, also addressed the war between Ukraine and Russia. Trump last week expressed impatience with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also stating that Ukraine started the war though Russia invaded the smaller country.
"I've been very consistent on this. Russia was the aggressor. Russia invaded Ukraine," he said.
The United States sided with Russia in voting on Monday against a U.N. resolution condemning Russia's war with Ukraine, and Moore took issue with the vote. If U.S. officials weren't comfortable with the resolution as put forward, he said, abstaining from the vote would have been a better approach. Still, Trump, he thinks, "is in the best position possible" to help bring an end to the war.
Moore was also queried on Trump's occasional musings about seeking a third term as president, prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. He questioned whether Trump truly would push for change in seeking another term and noted how difficult it would be to amend the Constitution to do so. "The bar is so high, we know that it's not something that seems to be a reality," he said.
