Democrat James Talarico speaks during a rally on Nov. 1 in San Antonio, Texas. On Tuesday, he flipped one of his state's Senate seats. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Trump’s federal workforce overhaul faces a new Congress after Democratic wins
At least one federal employee who separated from the federal government since last year will serve in the House.
Updated at 9:45 a.m. ET on Nov. 4.
Democrats will retake the House and Senate, several news outlets projected on Tuesday.
With control of Capitol Hill, Democrats are in a stronger position to push back on President Donald Trump’s federal workforce reforms that they’ve expressed opposition to, such as widespread cuts to agency headcounts and budgets, removing civil service protections from roughly 8,000 federal positions through the Schedule Policy/Career job classification as well as perform oversight over matters like the former Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative.
The oversight implications were already on display Tuesday night. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, posted “LAWYER UP” on social media.
Democrats flipped Senate seats in several states, including North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.
Government Executive previously identified several congressional races that have an outsized impact on feds, generally because they feature an incumbent lawmaker who is involved with the annual agency funding process or veterans’ issues. The Associated Press projects that:
- Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees military construction and the Veterans Affairs Department, has retained his seat.
- Democrat James Talarico will represent Texas’ more than 130,000 federal employees in the Senate.
- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, is projected to lose her race.
- Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, Jen Kiggans, R-Va. and Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis. — all senior leaders on the Veterans' Affairs Committee — failed in their re-election bids.
- Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, are expected to win their re-elections. They are the top Democrats on the Appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over the Army Corps of Engineers/Energy Department and Homeland Security Department, respectively.
Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor who said he resigned due to the president’s “politicization” of the Justice Department, won his race to represent Kentucky’s 6th District.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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