Republicans feel the heat from voters over Trump and Musk’s cuts
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What is the main topic of this episode?
Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 25th. I'm Shamitza Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Republican lawmakers are feeling the heat from their constituents at town halls. A look at how abortion bans affect sepsis rates. And a controversial pick could win the Oscar for Best Actress. But first, to the ongoing fallout from federal job firings. Yesterday, the Office of Personnel Management, which is effectively the government's HR department, told federal agencies that they can ignore Elon Musk's email, demanding they outline what they accomplished last week or risk losing their jobs. President Trump commented, too, saying some employees work with sensitive information and should be exempt from the email request.
But he also suggested employees could still be fired or, quote, semi-fired for noncompliance. One DOJ employee described the past few days to Politico as massive whiplash all the time. The next large scale cuts are coming for the Pentagon. On Friday, the Defense Department announced plans to cut 5,400 probationary workers starting this week, which would reduce its workforce by up to 8 percent. The Pentagon also said it plans to put a hiring freeze in place and it's proposed cutting 8 percent of its budget per year over the next five years. That's roughly 50 billion dollars a year. However, the Pentagon says a number of defense priorities will be exempt from cuts, like money that goes toward border security and countering China in the Pacific.
How are federal job cuts affecting the Pentagon?
The Washington Post examined one agency within the Defense Department where there's a lot of fear about the impact of cuts to staffing and budget.
The small office that handles the recovery of missing in action personnel, otherwise known as the Defense Department, POW, MIA accounting agency.
Alex Horton is a national security reporter for The Post.
It's not really clear to us whether this is a sacred cow that they're willing to lose or if it's going to be overlooked when it comes to sparing some of the federal employees.
The agency has around 700 people on staff, and their backgrounds are quite unique. There's forensic anthropologists, historians, even underwater archaeologists. That's because this agency does the difficult and painstaking work of finding, identifying, and repatriating the remains of Americans who died in wars overseas.
This takes a lot of work, a lot of science. You know, there are historians trying to figure out where people are in the field. Archaeologists have to go to, like, a lot of times these very austere, you know, dangerous environments and there's unexploded ordnance and stuff. So these things take a long time to unfold.
What challenges does the POW/MIA Accounting Agency face?
Horton told us about one veteran recovered by the agency during Trump's first term when the U.S. struck a deal with North Korea to repatriate the remains of Americans who died during the Korean War. Master Sergeant Charles McDaniel was last seen in 1950 tending to wounded soldiers in battle. His remains were identified by the agency in 2018, 68 years later, and parts of his skull, clavicle, and dog tag were returned to his sons. They spoke to the agency that year about what it meant to finally be able to lay their father to rest.
Well, it doesn't answer all the questions about his actual dying, but it certainly lets us have some certitude about that and some gratitude that there is some answer to that now. But it's still amazing to look at that. I actually felt like it's a gift from God to us.
It's unclear how exactly this agency might be affected by upcoming cuts, but staff are bracing for them to be widespread and indiscriminate. One employee of the agency told Horton, "...out of every DOD agency there is, we're the only one above reproach from a moral standpoint. It's not about making weapons. It's about returning loved ones to their families."
While Congress was in recess last week, many Republican lawmakers returned to their districts and held some of their first town halls with constituents since Trump took office. And a lot of them received an earful. People demanded answers about how sweeping budget cuts might impact them locally, about the mass firings of federal workers, and about the authority President Trump has given Elon Musk.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic of this episode?
0:05–1:44
2
How are federal job cuts affecting the Pentagon?
1:44–2:56
3
What challenges does the POW/MIA Accounting Agency face?
2:56–4:47
4
How are Republican town halls addressing voter concerns?
4:47–5:22
5
What did constituents say about Trump's executive powers?
5:22–13:31
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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