House Democrats invite ousted federal workers to Trump's speech to Congress

Instead of boycotting President Trump’s address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, Democrats took a different approach — bringing guests who are laid off federal workers.

Thousands of federal workers have been put on administrative leave, laid off or fired as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to downsize the government and cut fraud and waste.

A memo sent by the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee to congressional offices requested that House Democrats attending the president’s speech “bring a guest who has been harmed by the Trump administration’s early actions or will be hurt by the House Republican budget,” according to CNN.

Rep. Joe Courtney, Connecticut Democrat, said he’ll be bringing constituent Gabe D’Alatri, a Marine veteran and father who was fired from the Internal Revenue Service.

“He was a top-performing project manager at the IRS until he was unjustly fired 2 weeks ago in Elon Musk’s indiscriminate federal worker purge,” Mr. Courtney wrote in an X post Monday. “Tomorrow, Gabe will be my guest for President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress to highlight the hit veterans are taking from DOGE.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, has invited Alissa Ellman of Lockport to be his guest for the address. Ms. Ellman is a disabled Army Veteran who lost her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania Democrat, is bringing as her guest Jessica Malarik Fair, who lost her job as an architect at Valley Forge National Park.

Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois is reportedly bringing Adam Mulvey, an Army veteran who lost his job as an emergency management specialist at a federal health center that serves veterans and active military personnel.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, is joining her Democratic colleagues in the House by bringing another federal worker who lost his job as her guest — Doug Kowalewski, who worked at the National Science Foundation for three and a half years.

“I’m bringing Doug to force Trump to confront the federal workers he fired – the people who make this country run,” Ms. Warren said in a statement. She said cutting the NSF “isn’t efficient — it’s cruel, short-sighted and it’s costing American jobs and devastating millions of families.”

Mr. Kowalewski slammed the firing of federal workers, saying, “Millions of Americans who have dedicated their careers to this country are suffering because of unelected billionaires like Elon Musk.”

Democratic Reps. Brad Schneider of Illinois and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania also are both reportedly bringing guests who are recently removed federal workers: Adam Mulvey, an Army veteran who lost his job as an emergency management specialist at a federal health center that serves veterans and active military and Jessica Malarik Fair, who lost her job as an architect at Valley Forge National Park, respectively.

At least one Democrat has decided to skip the address — Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He said Mr. Trump’s speech will be a “farce [and] MAGA pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation.”