Inauguration Day is less than a week away, inviting either celebration or terror, depending on your political leanings.
The latter emotion is likely more prevalent in Fairfax County, where voters in all but two precincts favored Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris even as a rightward shift in Virginia overall helped secure the 2024 election for former and incoming president Donald Trump.
A number of regional leaders are pushing back on the incoming Trump administration’s goal of having federal workers quickly return to offices five days a week.
Despite concerns about the impact of work-from-home patterns on local transit and the commercial office sector, requiring federal workers to be back in the office full-time brought concerns from speakers at a recent Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA) forum.
Fairfax officials have promised resistance to Trump administration policies that conflict with their values.
But when it comes to keeping the federal workforce rooted in the local area, they may try another tack: flattery, or at least finding common ground.
It’s something that hasn’t been seen in nearly five years: A large percentage of the federal workforce exclusively back in the office — with many using Metro to get there.
But the incoming Trump administration has signaled it plans a major back-to-the-office push, and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) leaders are watching carefully to see how it plays out.
Fairfax County supervisors want to ensure the county government isn’t caught flat-footed by public policy revisions undertaken by the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress.
Supervisors voted 9-1 along party lines yesterday (Tuesday) to direct County Executive Bryan Hill and staff to analyze potential impacts on everything from federal government employment and commercial real estate to transportation and climate change.
