When Katie Sandlin was offered her dream job in genome research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda late last year, she was beside herself with excitement. She grew up in a small town in Alabama and was the first in her family to go to college. Her life hadn’t been easy, and she’d faced a lot of loss, but the new job felt like the start of a new chapter. She cried with happiness on the phone while undergoing the onboarding process with a NIH human resources employee.
“Getting offered a job at the NIH, for me and for someone in my field, that’s as good as it gets,” Sandlin said. “For people like me, where I come from, we do not get jobs like that. It just doesn’t happen.”
But just weeks after Sandlin moved across the country to Montgomery County from Alabama and left her job for the position she’d always dreamed of, she was laid off.
Sandlin was caught up in the recent wave of layoffs and firings, including more than 1,000 NIH employees. The reductions were ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as part of President Donald Trump’s process to cut the country’s federal workforce, according to NPR.
Sandlin, who started her job in January, was considered a probationary employee, and therefore lost her job Friday, along with thousands of other probationary workers fired over the weekend.
“I am truly in a grief mindset,” Sandlin told Bethesda Today on Tuesday, just three days after she was laid off. “I am in the denial stage.”
Sandlin had maxed out her credit card to make the move, a decision criticized by some she knew, but she was sure she’d have job security. Now, Sandlin is stuck with a lease in Montgomery County as well as one in Alabama, with no income to pay for her housing or her health care.
“This was what I thought was the American dream, it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I just really went all in for it, and did not expect to be treated this way at all whatsoever,” Sandlin said. “I feel stupid or ignorant … . I blew up my entire life to move here, and that’s all over.”
According to ABC News, more than 200,000 federal workers across the country have been laid off since Trump’s inauguration. The impacts hit close to home. Approximately 70,000 county residents are part of the federal workforce, according to Montgomery County Council President Kate Stewart’s (D-Dist. 4) office. That number does not include federal workers who reside in neighboring jurisdictions but work at agencies based in the county, such as NIH, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in White Oak or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring.
On Wednesday night, a couple hundred federal workers and supporters packed the Silver Spring Civic Center to hear from U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 6) at a town hall focused on resources and next steps for those who have been laid off or are concerned their jobs are in jeopardy.
“We face a clear and present danger in our country right now … to our constitution, to the rule of law and to other things that we hold dear in this country, and we stand together in saying that we will fight this illegal Elon Musk takeover of the federal government,” Van Hollen said. “We will fight them in the courts, and we will fight them in Congress, and we have to fight them in every neighborhood around the country.”
Van Hollen assured federal workers that their local representatives were working to reverse the layoff decisions.
“It is plain illegal to fire our federal employees unless there’s a performance reason or misconduct. That is true also of so-called probation employers,” Van Hollen said. “There are due process rights that they are illegally trampling over.”
While the town hall was billed as focusing on the federal workforce, it quickly became an opportunity for community members and the visiting politicians to express their frustration with Trump and Musk.
“Elon Musk and his band of misfit, post-pubescent betrayers of America and computer hackers are not opponents of corruption. They are agents of corruption,” Raskin told the crowd, to laughter and applause.
Alsobrooks said she was frustrated with the negative attitudes being directed at federal employees, including some of her constituents who have been longtime public servants.
“It really is a witch hunt that is happening regarding our federal workers. These civil servants … so many of them have served our country for decades. I have met them.” Alsobrooks said. “Some are here tonight … the people who served through many administrations, both Republican and Democratic … . It’s not just an attack on our federal workers, it’s an attack on the people that they serve.”
The impact of misinformation
James Hedrick, a member of the Montgomery County Planning Board, has worked for the Federal Housing Finance Agency for more than nine years. He told Bethesda Today in a recent interview he is frustrated with how the Trump administration has treated federal workers, and that he believes there is a lack of understanding of the work they do.
“A lot of us are here because we believe in the mission. We want to be here, and we like the public service aspect of what we’re doing,” Hedrick said. “I think it’s pretty insulting, the way that they’ve been talking about federal workers, and the emails that they sent out saying that we’re not effective.”
Sandlin has seen first-hand how misinformation about the federal workforce has influenced public opinion. When she posted a photo of her newly cleaned-out office at NIH on X, she did not expect for it to get thousands of likes and comments. As of Thursday, more than 5 million people had viewed the post. While some of those who commented were supportive of Sandlin, including Texas U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dist. 30), many were negative, making assumptions that Sandlin was wealthy or working with the Democratic party.
“People have been cruel. You don’t join a public service to get rich. You do it because you care about the work and you want to give back,” Sandlin said. “Now you’re judging me because my job’s funded by taxpayers … the mentality is difficult for me to understand.”
County, state offer resources
County Executive Marc Elrich (D) told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday he is concerned about the impacts the cuts will have on the area’s federal workers and the local economy. He warned of a potential “seismic shock.”
“All the income tax revenue and sales tax revenue, when people have less to spend, are going to suffer, as are local businesses who are going to have fewer customers, [such as] restaurants and coffee shops and daycare centers,” Elrich said. “Businesses that depend on these workers are going to feel the squeeze as well.”
On Feb. 6, Stewart’s office released a statement in support of federal workers, linking to a resource page.
“This is an incredibly stressful time for federal workers. We know and appreciate the work you do every day to make our country a better place,” Stewart wrote. “We also thank the lawyers and unions standing up to attacks on the federal workforce.”
The state and county are working to provide additional resources for laid-off federal workers. WorkSource Montgomery, a workforce development service provider in Wheaton, is partnering with the county to offer job-search workshops for county residents affected by the layoffs.
“We have actual people in our job centers that provide unemployment insurance assistance if you have any troubles with your unemployment insurance plan,” Anthony Featherstone, WorkSource Montgomery’s executive director, said at Elrich’s press briefing Wednesday. “We’re continuing to expand our workshops related to professional development, job searching, resume development. We’re going to be doing a lot of work to help folks transition out into the private sector.”
During a Feb. 13 press briefing, Maryland Secretary of Labor Portia Wu said the state is looking for opportunities to potentially funnel laid-off federal workers into vacant state positions.
“We have a lot of positions open in state and county government. These [federal workers] are people with excellent qualifications and very strong backgrounds,” Wu said. “We’ve been in contact with the counties to figure out how we make sure people are aware of opportunities right here in their neighborhoods.”
Wu also encouraged federal workers to file for unemployment in the jurisdiction where they work. She said Maryland workers who are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits can receive up to $430 per week in pre-tax benefits.
“We’ve seen that this could be coming for some time, so we’ve been gearing up to make sure we have additional resources here at the state level,” Wu said. “We are looking at additional options to make sure we have the capacity to answer people’s questions and support people.”
After her social media post went viral, Sandlin said she started a GoFundMe after people asked how they could help support her. As of Thursday morning, the fundraiser had reached nearly $9,000 in donations. Sandlin said she is overwhelmed and moved by people’s generosity.
“So many people have already donated that I have no idea who they are. I don’t recognize their names,” Sandlin said. “Even the small donations mean so much to me, because there are people out there that actually care about what happened to me and to NIH employees, and that’s their way to support us.”
Hedrick says he understands why some federal workers chose to take a “buyout” option recently offered by the Trump administration, but he plans to stay as long as he has a job because he believes the work is important.
“The best thing I can do is stay here and keep institutional knowledge and continuity within our agency,” Hedrick said. “I want to fight against this. I think the mission of our agency is incredibly important, and so is the work of all the agencies.”
Sandlin said she wishes the Trump administration would better understand the role of federal workers and how their work impacts the American people.
“Come see what we do, come see the work that we do, hear personal stories from the people that we help, and see the impact of what we’re doing — and consider the economic impact,” she said.
