FEBRUARY 13 - 19, 2025
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV No. 1
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
Beyer Hits Back at Trump Policies
A WELCOME FOR SEN. KAINE
Illegal Firings of Federal Workers Draws His Ire by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, who represents a Northern Virginia district containing one of the largest concentrations of federal employees in the U.S. House, issued the following statement Tuesday on Donald Trump’s “workforce optimization initiative,” an Executive Order pairing mass purges of the federal workforce with a directive that all new hiring be vetted by a fake, unauthorized agency headed by the President’s billionaire donor Elon Musk: “The M u s k - Tr u m p Administration’s purge of the federal civil service is illegal, terrible for the country, and paves the way for increased corruption. “Federal workers and their expertise are vital to Americans’ health and security. They work everyday to protect us from disease, crime, and threats foreign and domestic. They ensure our seniors have Social Security and Medicare, they provide care to veterans, and they deliver our mail. Trump’s plan to massively reduce the workforce providing those services will severely damage the delivery of those services. “Congress passed laws to ensure that the federal civil service is a professional, career workforce selected and promoted based on skill and merit, not on political loyalty. Trump’s
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VIRGINIA’S U.S. SENATOR Tim Kaine received a warm welcome by students at the Higher Horizons program in Bailey’s Crossroads, a program assailed by the illegal cutoff of support and funding by the Trump administration. (Photo: News-Press).
Kaine Visits Stricken Head Start Site in Bailey’s
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Virginia’s U.S. Senator Tim Kaine made an extended visit to the Higher Horizons youth development program in the Bailey’s Crossroads section of Greater Falls Church Friday morning, and found a staff expressing deep concerns about the impact that the Trump administration is having on their
ability to tend to the needs of the nation’s youngest and most vulnerable populations. Kaine, who stressed in comments to the News-Press during the visit that he and his congressional colleagues are likewise concerned, said that what has been happening in terms of sudden funding cuts to vital programs is “very unprecedented” because unlike even the first Trump administration, these
draconian changes are being implemented with “no attempt at providing a legal rationale.” Among those who attended Kaine’s visit and spoke out to him during a group discussion was Kathleen Havey, a senior director of policy for the American Head Start Association who is also a Falls Church resident. She noted that even with a court order to resume the fund-
ing of key programs, the slow and uneven access to funds is having a crippling effect on programs like Higher Horizons. Sen. Kaine toured the facility, sitting in on a classroom where he sat with children and delighted them by reading from the classic children’s book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear.” Higher Horizons is a private,
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