In early January, Chris Van Hollen stepped into his new role as Maryland’s senior senator, following the retirement of his long-time colleague, fellow Democrat Ben Cardin. He immediately confronted an unprecedented challenge: how to fight newly inaugurated President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, his adviser, along with their chain saw approach to cutting the size of the federal workforce.
Representing a jurisdiction that contained more than 160,000 federal workers at the outset of Trump’s second term—the third largest contingent of any state in the country—Van Hollen has emerged regionally and nationally as a leading face of what has been dubbed by Trump critics as the resistance. (Estimates by state officials earlier this month put the number of federal jobs affected in Maryland so far by the cuts at more than 11,500, although no firm figures have yet been made available by federal agencies.)
Since the beginning of February, the longtime Kensington resident has appeared and spoken at 16 separate “pop-up rallies” in front of Trump-targeted federal agencies in Washington and Baltimore as well as his home base of Montgomery County. In between have been a steady round of related events — press conferences, Senate floor speeches, and online “tele-town halls” for constituents, plus a Sunday talk show appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Van Hollen sought to maximize his leverage late last week, joining with a majority of his fellow Senate Democrats in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to filibuster a bill narrowly passed by the Republican-controlled House to keep the government funded through Sept. 30. “I don’t want a government shutdown,” Van Hollen declared. “But I will not support this Republican House bill that simply gives Elon Musk more fuel and more tools to dismantle big parts of the federal government… .”
“My goal has been to be a part of the tip of the spear — against this tsunami of illegal actions taken by Musk and Trump in their efforts to tear up Article I of the Constitution and run roughshod over due process rights for federal employees,” Van Hollen recently told Bethesda Magazine.
His comments came during an expansive interview in which Van Hollen not only discussed his current activities, but looked back to the last session of Congress, in which his stance on Israel’s war in Gaza at times stirred controversy among some constituents. He also discussed the recently convened session on Capitol Hill, during which he is hopeful of advancing several legislative initiatives despite Republican control of both Congress and the White House.
It has been nearly one-third of a century since Van Hollen first entered the electoral arena, as a member of the House of Delegates from Chevy Chase-based District 18. While not answering directly when asked if he plans to seek a third Senate term in 2028 — when he will be approaching 70 — he didn’t sound like someone contemplating retirement anytime soon.
“I’ve got a lot of work still to do and have the full energy to do it,” Van Hollen said. “I’m now fully engaged in this effort to protect the Constitution and protect the country. [But] hopefully we get back to a point when we can move forward again on some very important matters.”
Three-part resistance strategy
As the Democrats have struggled since the November election to come up with a mid- and long-term strategy to recapture the executive and legislative branches and regain support in key voting blocs, Van Hollen discussed his approach in seeking to blunt future waves of federal job layoffs in the near term.
“It’s been a three-part strategy,” he explained. “We’re going to fight them in the courts, in the Congress, and in communities across the country. And I do think all of these pieces fit together.”
One obstacle has been the widespread reluctance of the Republican majority on Capitol Hill to speak out, in apparent fear of retribution from a party rank-and-file now dominated by Trump adherents. Van Hollen conceded as much at a recent rally in front of a top Trump/Musk target, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), during which he exercised another of his recent roles: providing emotional support to constituents separated from jobs once thought to be secure.
“Stay strong, we have your back,” he implored the fired USAID workers. “We will do everything in our power in the Senate, in the House to stop this outrage. And, in the meantime, since we don’t have many Republican colleagues who help us, we are doing everything we can through the courts.”
He later expanded on this point while being interviewed. “Clearly, the courts are the first line of defense, when you have this kind of massive law-breaking going on,” said Van Hollen, who practiced law before first being elected to Congress in 2002 to represent Montgomery County-based District 8 in the House.
He added: “I’ve been working very closely with the lawyers who are bringing these cases. We are providing them with information we receive from our constituents — both in terms of their personal circumstances to help with [legal] standing in court, as well as passing along [information] from whistleblowers to organizations that provide whistleblower protection.”
One such group is Democracy Forward, founded in the wake of Trump winning a first term in 2016. “The courts are now the frontline in the battleground for democracy, not merely the last resort protectors of it,” the Washington, D.C., legal organization’s mission statement reads.
Van Hollen, who said the organization “has been really one of the engines of the legal resistance to this massive law-breaking,” brought Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman as his guest when Trump addressed a joint session of Congress earlier this month.
Van Hollen believes Congress’ Republican majority will take a more active role in resisting Trump’s massive downsizing of the federal workforce as communities across the country increasingly feel the impact of fewer jobs and reduced services.
“I do believe a big part of this is mobilizing grassroots support — not only in this region, but we’re seeing this now around the country — because that can ultimately impact some of the Republican senators and House members,” he said. “They’re going to listen to their constituents more than they’re going to listen to Democratic members of the Senate, however close a personal relationship we may have.”
Referring to the role of public opinion, he added: “That’s going to be very important. That was the secret to success in preventing repeal of the Affordable Care Act.” Van Hollen was a member of the House Democratic leadership — as assistant to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi — when so-called “Obamacare” was enacted a decade and a half ago. Congressional Republicans unsuccessfully sought to roll back the law during Trump’s first term.
Stance on Israel-Hamas war
Van Hollen’s high-profile role in fighting the federal workforce reductions follows his role in the last session of Congress as a very visible and vocal critic of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas attack and hostage-taking in October 2023.
He was widely viewed as the most strongly pro-Israel candidate in his initial race for the Senate in 2016, in a state that ranks fourth nationally in its percentage of Jewish residents. But in March 2024, five months into the Israel-Hamas war, more than 70 Maryland rabbis signed a letter imploring him “to change your rhetoric and actions that we believe mischaracterize the current war and undermine America’s support for the Jewish state.”
Asked whether his position on Israel and the Middle East had changed over the past decade, Van Hollen replied: “My position has remained steadfast. What we’ve seen is a total shift to the very far right in the government of Israel under [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu … but also the very rightward move here in American politics, especially among the Republican Party.”
Alluding to the proposed creation of a separate Palestinian state to coexist with Israel, Van Hollen continued: “The Republican Party used to support the two-state solution. It was first officially announced by [President] George W. Bush. Now you’ve got people like Donald Trump talking about what amounts to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza by removing 2 million people and developing hotels.”
In a statement last year, Van Hollen said he had “repeatedly and unreservedly spoken out about the horrors of the Hamas terrorist attacks” and “fully support[ed] the right of Israel to defend itself and eliminate the military threat of Hamas.” However, amid mounting Palestinian civilian casualties from Israeli attacks and Israel’s restrictions on deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Van Hollen added, “I also believe that a just war must be fought justly.”
“Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food,” Van Hollen declared in a February 2024 Senate floor speech, charging: “It is a textbook war crime. That makes those who orchestrate it war criminals. So now the question is, what will the United States do?”
The Biden administration, responding to a legislative amendment Van Hollen was crafting to require U.S. military assistance to Israel be used in accordance with U.S. and international humanitarian laws, agreed to make the amendment an executive memorandum with the force of law. A month into his second term, Trump repealed the Biden memorandum.
“So, I’m glad to be on the side of human rights and the rule of law, and against the approach that the Trump administration has taken,” Van Hollen said.
In Maryland, the degree of political fallout that Van Hollen may have to deal with going forward remains to be seen. Ron Halbert, executive director of the Montgomery County-based Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told the online Jewish Daily Insider last spring that “there’s no doubt in my mind that [Van Hollen] is hemorrhaging significant Jewish support because of his perceived lack of sensitivity to Israel during the current war.”
At the same time, nearly 500 Maryland Jews signed a letter in response to the one sent earlier by the rabbis, thanking Van Hollen for “his brave stance and urge him to continue speaking out against Israel’s atrocities and for peace, justice, and equality for Palestinians and Israelis.” The signers included 10 rabbis, including five from Montgomery County, along with a number of members from congregations led by the rabbis who had signed the letter critical of Van Hollen.
Hopes for bipartisan approach to legislation
While Van Hollen continues to be focused on policy abroad as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he is also turning his attention to domestic legislation that could be passed in a bipartisan manner in a Republican-controlled Congress—even as he acknowledged that some of his long-term legislative priorities will have to await a more favorable political environment.
“It’s going to be difficult,” he said, looking ahead to 2025-2026 on Capitol Hill. “The Republicans are going to try to pass as much as they can through the budget … process with all sorts of poison pills, and part of their aim [is] to provide tax cuts for the super-rich at the expense of everybody else in America.”
While a 2022 assessment of legislative sponsorship by GovTrack.us found Van Hollen to be firmly on the left side of the Senate Democratic Caucus, he regularly has sought to work across the political aisle during his congressional career. He cited a couple of bipartisan bills he hopes to advance over the next couple of years.
“One is the legislation to promote more employee-owned businesses because I think that model … has proven to provide more prosperity and, of course, shared wealth,” said Van Hollen, who introduced this measure in the last Congress with then-Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (R), now secretary of state in the Trump administration. (Van Hollen is among just nineSenate Democrats this year who have voted against confirmation of all Trump Cabinet nominees with the exception of Rubio, who was unanimously confirmed.)
This year, Van Hollen plans to reintroduce the bill he sponsored with Rubio—enabling the Commerce Department to provide loan guarantees to investment funds devoted to expanding employee ownership — with Indiana Sen. Todd Young as his Republican partner.
Van Hollen and Young also are co-sponsoring a housing bill originally introduced in the spring of 2023 “aimed specifically at helping families with young children move to areas of greater opportunity.” It is designed to create an additional 250,000 housing vouchers for low-income, high-need families with young children over the next five years.
Declared Van Hollen: “If Republicans want to do anything about affordable housing, and creating more opportunities for families, that should be something they’re willing to include in any [legislative] package, but we’ll have to see.”
Meanwhile, he has reintroduced a proposal that he has been pushing since his time in the House to fully fund two major federal education programs: Title 1, which aids schools with a high percentage of low-income students, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Figures provided by Van Hollen’s office put Title 1 at $35.9 billion below the authorized funding levels nationally for the 2024-2025 school year, while IDEA has a nearly $38.7 billion shortfall. (In Maryland, alone, the shortfall is currently $647.2 million for Title I and $671.6 million for IDEA.)
The legislation also seeks to make future funding for those programs mandatory; Van Hollen’s aim is to build support for the measure, while awaiting a time when his party is back in the congressional majority to push to enact the measure.
“I’ve got a lot more work to do on the domestic front… that I hope to keep alive and advance in the next few years,” Van Hollen said. “I’ve also learned from past successes that beginning the fight now can bear fruit later.”
As an example, he cited another legislative proposal dating back to his House days – a so-called “Green Bank” – that became law more than a decade later as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. That measure provided $20 billion for Van Hollen’s idea, now called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, to finance renewable energy projects and mitigate the impact of construction projects on climate, particularly in low-income areas.
It’s become yet another battleground in the fight over the size and scope of the federal government as the Environmental Protection Agency last week announced it is terminating all grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
