Virginia House Speaker Don Scott Forms Committee to Study Impact of Trump’s Cuts

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

“They’re not using a surgical tool, they’re using a sledgehammer,” Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said in a recent interview with the Washington Post. “The way they’re doing it is causing a lot of disruption. We want to be able to understand it and get some data.”

Seven Democrats and five Republicans will serve on Scott’s newly formed 12-member committee that will be headed by Del. David L. Bulova (D-Fairfax) as chairman and Del. Robert S. Bloxom Jr. (R-Accomack) as vice chairman. It will hold an organizational meeting by May 1 and issue a final report by Dec. 15, Scott said.

“We need to take the politics out of this thing and have a responsible, deliberate, sober conversation about what this really means to Virginians,” Scott told The Washington Post. He cited Trump’s intention to slash the federal workforce, shutter agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Education Department, and move workers away from the Washington region.

Á recent study by the Congressional Research Service shows Virginia is home to 144,483 federal workers — behind only the District, at 162,144, and California at 147,487. The state ranks high in federal contract awards, according to Scott’s office, citing data from the federal Office of Personnel Management that showed $106 billion in federal contracts in 2023.

Scott said he is particularly concerned about the potential impact of such cuts on Northern Virginia, where many federal agencies are located, and on Hampton Roads, which is home to some of the world’s largest military bases and shipyards. Terminating leases on office buildings will hurt the commercial real estate market, he said, and people losing jobs will harm tax revenue and increase demand for public services.

He said he had not yet spoken with Gov. Glenn Youngkin about his concerns.

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“The governor has been 100 percent behind everything that the Trump-Musk administration is doing and has not stood up for Virginia yet,” said Scott, referring to the efforts of billionaire Elon Musk to eliminate agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency that Trump has created for him.

“I have to believe that behind closed doors, [the governor] is like, ‘WTF is going on?’ ”Scott said. “Hopefully he’s advocating for Virginia and its citizens.”

According to The Washington Post, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who has become a close supporter of Trump, has defended the new administration’s actions and said that while they might cause some Virginians to lose their jobs, the state’s economy is strong enough for anyone to find new work.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a Washington Post request for comment about Scott’s initiative.

However, Youngkin said on Feb. 5, on his way to the White House to attend President Donald Trump’s signing of an Executive Order banning transgender women from playing women’s sports, “Well, first of all, let me just begin with the fact that what President Trump is doing, he told everybody ahead of time.”

“There’s nothing that he’s doing that should be a surprise to folks.

“He’s moving very quickly and he also told everybody he would do exactly that.

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“And so the actions that they have taken, I think are ones that you know, listen, as a governor who had headwinds for the last three years, I am so excited that we’ve got tailwinds.

“We’ve got tailwinds on economic development, we’ve got tailwinds on public safety, and we’ve got tailwinds for standing up for Americans.”

According to The Washington Post, the committee’s official tasks include collecting data on workforce and federal funding cuts; assessing the impact on Virginia’s economy; investigating how businesses, nonprofits and state agencies expect to be affected by cuts; and creating policy recommendations for next year’s General Assembly session.