House Democrat introduces bill to reinstate veterans fired from the
federal government under Trump
 [February 26, 2025]
By MATT BROWN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A freshman Democratic congressman is introducing a
bill to protect the jobs of veterans working for the U.S. government
amid mass firings by the Trump administration, the latest legislative
response to the turmoil rippling across federal agencies.
The bill from Rep. Derek Tran, an Army veteran and former employment
lawyer, would require that any veterans terminated without reason from
the federal government since the start of President Donald Trump’s term
be reinstated. It would also require federal agencies to submit reports
to Congress on the veteran dismissals and provide justifications for
their actions.
“They sacrificed so much to protect our country, to defend our freedom,”
said Tran, who represents parts of Orange County, California. “Now
they’ve been kicked to the curb.”
The bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled House, but
it serves as just the latest example of how Democrats are trying to
harness public backlash to Trump's efforts to upend the federal
government through the Department of Government Efficiency, which is led
by billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Nearly 6,000 veterans have been fired across the federal government,
according to data from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.
That data found that DOGE has fired about 38,000 federal employees since
the start of Trump’s second term.
“It’s almost like permission to let them do what they want to do, and
they feel like they can come in and disrupt by firing, by cutting a
bunch of employees just so that they save government or they save this
country X amount of dollars, only to transfer that over to tax cuts for
them,” Tran told The Associated Press.
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Democrats have denounced the Trump administration's broadsides
against federal workers and agencies as unlawful power grabs, while
Republicans in Congress have called the president's efforts a
necessary corrective to what conservatives view as a bloated federal
bureaucracy. Tran says he would welcome a Republican co-sponsor to
work on the bill.
“I've been trying to get support. I’m trying to not make this a
partisan issue,” Tran said. “This is just the right thing for our
veterans. So in my communication with colleagues across the aisle, I
want to make sure that they understand this is not a Democratic
bill. This is a bill to protect those who served.”
The federal government has traditionally encouraged veterans to work
across the government after their service in uniform. The Veterans
Employment Initiative was enacted by then-President Barack Obama to
streamline and boost veteran recruitment and retention efforts
across the government. Military training and education are often
considered a prized asset to private-sector firms because of the
skills troops develop during their service.
Tran is the son of Vietnamese immigrants who fled their country amid
the Vietnam War. He served in the U.S. Army before getting a law
degree and becoming a small business owner. He is the third
Vietnamese American to serve in Congress, after defeating Republican
U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel in last year's election.
He said that his service was inspired by the aid that federal and
state programs in California had afforded his family after they had
sought safe haven in a new country.
“As the son of refugees, I always felt this debt to this country for
taking in my parents,” Tran said. “I always had a sense of wanting
to give back to this country. So I marched into the recruiter’s
office without telling my parents or my friends and enlisted.”
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