federal government | FFXnow

Published July 16, 2025 at 11:45AM | Updated July 16, 2025 at 6:07PM

Federal employment in the D.C. region from 1990 to May 1, 2025 (via Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments)

Fairfax County’s top elected officials at the state and local level united this morning (Wednesday) to urge Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration to provide more support for fired federal workers.

In a joint statement, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Jeff McKay and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), who represents southeastern Fairfax, pinned the “staggering rise in unemployment” across the county on “the reckless policies of Donald Trump” and the “complicity” of Virginia’s Republican leaders.

Countywide

Walkinshaw, Fairfax Democrats blast GOP-passed ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

By Jared Serre

Published July 14, 2025 at 2:45PM

Clockwise from top left: budget anlyst Andy Pavord, Braddock Supervisor James Walkinshaw, Sen. Saddam Salim, Del. Vivian Watts

Fairfax County Democrats are going on the offensive over the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” calling the legislation a “betrayal” that will hurt Virginians.

Speaking last Thursday (July 10) at a virtual roundtable, three local lawmakers took aim at the nearly 1,000-page budget reconciliation bill, which was signed into law on July 4.

Countywide

Federal tax changes could make it easier to build affordable housing, Fairfax officials say

By Scott McCaffrey

Published July 9, 2025 at 10:00AM

Tom Fleetwood, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (screenshot via Fairfax County)

Fairfax County’s efforts to support additional affordable housing may have received an unexpected boost from the recently passed federal budget reconciliation act.

County officials are working through the details, but the changes in federal law could represent “a significant step forward” in financing affordable housing, Tom Fleetwood, director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development, told the Board of Supervisors at a housing committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday).

News

Smithsonian committed to keeping space shuttle in Chantilly despite relocation proposal

By Angela Woolsey

Published July 3, 2025 at 8:30AM

Space Shuttle Discovery on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has no intention right now of shipping off a centerpiece of its Chantilly facility to Texas.

The federal budget bill that squeaked through the Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday (July 1) includes a provision directing NASA to transfer the Discovery space shuttle from its longtime home at the Udvar-Hazy Center to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, allocating $85 million toward transportation and construction costs.

News

Vienna credit union no longer required to refund $80M in overdraft fees

By Associated Press

Published July 1, 2025 at 7:30PM

A sign for Navy Federal Credit Union's headquarters branch in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

By KEN SWEET AP Banking Reporter

NEW YORK (AP) — Navy Federal Credit Union will no longer have to refund $80 million to servicemen and women for illegally charging them overdraft fees on their accounts, after the President Donald Trump-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved to dismiss the case.

News

Some, but not all, 11th District GOP candidates condemn ‘theatrics’ of DOGE cuts

By Jared Serre

Published June 24, 2025 at 1:45PM | Updated June 27, 2025 at 1:36PM

GOP Congressional candidates Lucas Rand and Karina Lipsman (staff photos by Jared Serre)

Roughly half of the Republicans seeking to represent Virginia’s 11th Congressional District condemned the process — but not the result — used by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash the federal workforce.

Speaking to voters at a forum on Sunday (June 22), three of the candidates expressed a distaste for the way in which tens of thousands of federal government workers have been fired since President Donald Trump took office in January, allegedly to reduce spending.

Countywide

Even members of Congress have no clear idea of unemployment related to Trump cuts

By Scott McCaffrey

Published June 17, 2025 at 8:30AM

Sen. Mark Warner speaks at a 2024 Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce event in Tysons on March 11, 2024 (staff photo by James Jarvis)

How many Northern Virginia residents have lost their jobs as part of federal cutbacks and their ripple effects on the economy? Nobody seems to know for sure — including members of the U.S. Senate.

“We’re still trying to get the right numbers,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (COG) board of directors at a meeting last Wednesday (June 11).

News

Report: Tysons economy steady to open 2025, but federal spending disruptions loom

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 5, 2025 at 11:45AM

The Scotts Run neighborhood in Tysons seen from across the Capital Beltway (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Tysons economy appeared to be heading in an encouraging direction to start 2025. Visitations and residential and retail occupancy rates were up, and office vacancies at least held steady instead of rising.

However, the impacts of federal spending and workforce cuts by the Trump administration have yet to emerge in the data tracked by the Tysons Community Alliance (TCA), which released its latest quarterly market report today (Thursday).

Countywide

New initiative hopes to help N. Va. workers ‘pivot’ amid federal government upheaval

By Scott McCaffrey

Published June 3, 2025 at 2:45PM

Man in suit and tie (photo via Hunters Race on Unsplash)

Local economic development organizations have joined forces to launch a comprehensive initiative aimed at assisting federal employees, contractors and other professionals facing career disruptions.

“The Pivot” is an initiative of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, which includes the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Countywide

Legislators suggest Virginia needs to take more active role in food safety

By Scott McCaffrey

Published May 30, 2025 at 1:45PM

Del. Mark Sickles (D-17) (photo via campaign website)

Virginia may need to enact more food safety requirements at the state level in response to cutbacks and deregulation efforts by the Trump administration, two legislators and several advocates said at a recent forum.

“We have historically, in my opinion, not done the kind of oversight we need to do. We’ve let the federal government do most of it,” Del. Mark Sickles (D-17) said during the press event on May 28.