Prince George's County aims to help laid-off federal workers

Prince George's County aims to help laid-off federal workers

Officials in Prince George?s County moved forward Tuesday with plans to help laid-off federal workers get back on their feet. FOX 5 DC's Josh Rosenthal reports.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD. - Officials in Prince George’s County moved forward Tuesday with plans to help laid-off federal workers get back on their feet.

The resolution does 3 things 

What we know:

County council members passed a resolution Tuesday that will do three things, according to Councilmember Wala Blegay.

First, Prince George’s County will now give priority hiring to laid-off federal workers. In other words, if all else is equal and there are two applicants for the same county job, the laid-off federal employee would get it over anyone else who isn’t already a county employee.

Secondly, the county will offer free workforce training and career transition support.

Finally, the county will now create a food assistance database to expand access to food banks.

What they're saying:

"We have over 73,000 federal workers and even a bigger number of federal contractors," Councilmember Wala Blegay told FOX 5. "If they fall through the cracks, I mean, many people have been working for 40, 50 years, and they are unemployed. We can’t afford for too many of our residents to go under. If they can’t pay their mortgage and all of the things that they need, we have to provide support for them."

The backstory:

Blegay said the effort to assist laid-off federal workers actually began in response to DOGE layoffs, although it will now apply to employees impacted by the government shutdown as well.

What passed Tuesday is a scaled-down version of aid packages that were discussed previously. For instance, councilmembers contemplated paying laid-off employees directly at one point. Blegay said. Ultimately, county leaders realized they couldn't afford to do so, even though she added that they would've liked to have done more.