(Washington, DC) - Maryland Congressman Johnny Olszewski has introduced his first original bill as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, aiming to help recently-promoted federal employees who have been laid off under the Trump Administration. The "Protect Promoted Workers Act" will require the Administration to reinstate federal employees who had been on probationary status due to recent promotion when they were terminated - and extend employment protections to all promoted employees moving forward.

More than 24,000 federal employees have been terminated since President Trump took office and tasked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency with sweeping cuts to our civil service. Many employees were laid off based on their probationary status - a status they held not because they were new hires or had poor performance, but because they recently accepted promotions.

In fact, the bill was inspired by Second District constituent Katie Stahl, a 6-year Department of the Interior employee who was terminated by DOGE in February because a recent promotion re-categorized her as probationary. Stahl joined Congressman Olszewski as his guest at this year's State of the Union address.

"Workers were fired for being good at their jobs. They were offered no notice, no severance and no healthcare," Congressman Olszewski said. "It's not fair to them or the taxpayers who rely on the vital services they excelled at providing. This bill sends a message to President Trump, DOGE and all future Administrations that our federal workers are not expendable. This is a critical step toward restoring the integrity of federal employment and the civility owed to our civil servants."

Currently, promoted probationary federal employees have limited protections and can be dismissed with minimal justification despite their positive work history. To prevent the unjust firing of federal employees, particularly those promoted based on merit, by this or future Administrations, the Protect Promoted Workers Act will:

The full text of the bill is available here. It's endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees.

"The administration's assault on probationary federal workers has one goal in mind: to cripple the government's ability to serve the American people by depriving the federal workforce of experienced employees who, through the excellence of their service, have been recently promoted to higher levels of responsibility," AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. "Congressman Olszewski's bill calls out and says no to the administration's reckless campaign against newly promoted federal employees and would provide them with basic rights to challenge the administration's action. AFGE urges other members of Congress to cosponsor this bill to protect probationary employees."

The bill's cosponsors include: Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA), Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Congressman Derek Tran (D-CA), Congressman Wesley Bell (D-MO), Congressman Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), Congressman Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN), Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA), Congressman Pablo Hernandez (D-PR), Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Congressman Sam Liccardo (D-CA), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV), Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY), Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-IL), Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), Congressman Cleo Fields (D-LA), Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV), Congressman Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA), Congressman Timothy Kennedy (D-NY), and Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA).

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