Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine held a telephone town hall on February 10 2025. Some of the SDC members joined the call and here are two reports:
Report 1
The Take Away:
This evening was an open phone-line platform available to all Virginia residents. The vast majority of calls were from government employees concerned about their layoffs, pension plans, hiring freeze and future positions.
There was one call from a woman, recently hired by the Veterans Hospital in Spotsylvania Va. who was told not to return to work because of a freeze. Both Warner and Kaine said they did not know this was happening and would personally look into this; because the Veterans Hospitals were not to be included in this hiring freeze.
The last call was from a Physician in Northern Va. concerned about funding cuts to research
centers both academic, private and federally funded and how this will be devastating to projects and their outcomes.
The Game Plan:
- Kaine and Warner both stress how they are going to lunch with their Republican colleagues, trying to maintain an open dialogue.
-They are hanging their hats on Federal Judge’s abilities to enforce the law
-They think they have bargaining chips to play come March budget approval
Their request:
They both emphasized the importance of “you must do”, civilian activism. This message was given equal weight to “I promise you we will do our best.”
The Reality: At this time things are unraveling so quickly that there is no keeping up. Courts are already overwhelmed. Everyone, both within the system and civilians are confused, fearful and looking for direction. It will take a united front from representatives and private citizens to weather this storm. Both Representatives promised more of these platforms in the near future.
On a personal note I did not detect despair in their voices or with their answers. They seem to hold tight to the hope that Democracy will prevail.
Report 2
An encouraging “Town Hall” call-in Q&A with Senators Kaine and Warner and callers from several parts of Virginia covered concerns about fallout from the many assaults on the federal government by the Trump/Musk administration. Most callers were federal employees experiencing layoffs and firings, and some were citizens wanting to know what was being done about the administration’s irresponsible actions. The courts, Congress and citizen action are three strategic areas being used.
- “Fork in the Road” memos from DOGE: The senators advised not taking this offer because it isn’t legal and might not even provide the severance pay since the funds may not be there after March.
- Federal retirement accounts: Move retirement money now, since if the Office of Personnel Management is cut, services from them will take a very long time to process, if you are leaving the government. For everyone in general, regular bank accounts are safe.
- Instead of being ineffective bureaucrats, many government workers who are being cut include extremely experienced personnel whose expertise would take years to replace, so cutting intelligence, USAID and other agencies’ staff will cause at best instability and at worst vulnerability to security threats. USAID provides U.S. democratizing influence as well as life-saving help in areas that could be taken over by authoritarian Chinese, Russian and other adversarial influences around the world.
- Kaine and Warner were very positive and are open to working with willing Republicans to save and improve the federal government in legal ways (unlike the current administration is doing in bypassing Congress). They are hoping that, as the upcoming federal budget negotiations take place, opportunities will arise for working with Republicans to remediate some of the problems we are now facing. The senators plan to have additional Town Hall meetings. I came away feeling how lucky we in Virginia are to have these two senators, who have worked so well together for decades, to fight for our rights and humane interests against the current assaults against them.
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