KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The possibility of more federal layoffs looms for Kansas City’s largest employer.
The chance of more government layoffs is troubling for the 30,000 federal workers living in the Kansas City metro, and anxious to see what’s next in this process.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers based in the metro, including those at offices on Pershing Way, will potentially be out in the cold under this plan, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to promote job cuts at the federal level. Some former government workers are already being notified their jobs are being eliminated.
Casey Stewart, a former FEMA employee, served three tours as a U.S. Marine, and one more as a government worker, assigned to assist Hurricane Helene’s victims in North Carolina. Stewart took that job less than a year ago, in hopes of doing something altruistic.
Stewart said he received a call on Monday from a FEMA supervisor, indicating his job was over. He was considered a probationary status employee, which reflects his recent hire.
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone considering merit if we’re axing everybody who was on probationary status. That seems to be a blanket decision for a large group of people,” Stewart said from his Miami County, Kansas home.
VA employees are also on the edges of their seats, especially those in Leavenworth, Kansas, a city filled with federal workers. Rebecca Reinhold, a vice-president with the American Federation of Government Employees, represents 1,200 workers at five Leavenworth facilities. Reinhold said she’s particularly concerned about people who didn’t volunteer for the Deferred Resignation Program, and may lose their jobs anyway.
Reinhold indicated some workers are being notified by phone or email without respect for their time of service.
“It seems cold. It seems disheartening for the employees, who provide the care for the people who deserve it the most. These are the veterans who’ve fought for our country for many, many years,” Reinhold said on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II (D-Missouri) told FOX4 he recently met with a large group of Kansas City-based IRS employees, who’d been fired from their jobs via email.
“It’s being done haphazardly. There was no plan drawn up. People are going to get hurt. These are real live human beings,” Cleaver said.
Cleaver also says he knows of 50 lawsuits that have been filed in hopes of stopping the elimination of these federal jobs. He pointed out that Democrats in Congress have the minority, and they’re hopeful their Republican counterparts will speak out against this plan.