'If You Can Keep It': The Layoffs At The Departments Of State And Education

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This month, two Supreme Court decisions allowed the Trump administration to move forward with significant federal layoffs, including many at the Departments of Education and State.

The State Department laid off senior intelligence analysts specializing in Russia and Ukraine, right as the U.S. ramps up its maneuvering to encourage Vladimir Putin to agree to a peace deal.

And at the Department of Education, the Federal Student Aid office, responsible for administering student loans and Pell Grants, lost hundreds of people.

We break down both situations.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:25.1	This is the 1A podcast. I'm Jen White.
0:34.2	And I'm Todd's Willick. Back again for the latest in our If You Can Keep It series, where we explore what the political news you hear means for our democracy.
0:37.8	Two Supreme Court decisions this month allow the Trump administration to move forward with significant layoffs, including other departments of education and state.
0:42.9	They're part of an ongoing reduction in workforce across every agency. More than 100,000 federal
0:48.4	jobs have been lost so far. And it's all in the name of reform, according to the Trump administration,
0:53.6	but it also signals
0:55.0	major losses of institutional knowledge and highly specific expertise. For example,
1:01.7	the State Department laid off senior intelligence analysts specializing in Russia and Ukraine
1:06.7	right as the U.S. ramps up its maneuvering to encourage Vladimir Putin to agree to a peace deal.
1:12.0	And at the Department of Education, the federal student aid office, they're responsible for administering student loans and Pell grants, they lost hundreds of people.
1:21.4	How will they manage the government's $1.7 trillion loan portfolio?
1:26.7	That's where we'll start today, right after this.
1:33.8	Support for NPR, and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
1:39.2	RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
1:45.9	Learn more at our WJF.org.
1:50.7	Let's get into it with our guests.
1:53.0	With us from New Jersey is Rachel Gittleman.
1:55.7	In March, she was laid off from her role as an analyst in the Ombudsman's Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education.
2:02.9	Her official last day will be August 1st.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.