Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., was accompanied Tuesday night during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress by Andrew Lennox, a Marine Corps veteran and former Veterans Affairs employee who was among the many probationary employees whose jobs were abruptly terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in February.
Lennox, a U.S. Marine mortarman veteran with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, according to Mother Jones, started his role at the Department of Veterans Affairs Office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in December 2024 — roughly two months before DOGE began its firing of probationary employees across the federal government.
His decadelong tenure as a Marine — which Lennox has described as the “greatest job” he’s ever had — and his abrupt firing by DOGE is expected to be a major theme of Slotkin’s speech, which will focus on the sharp reductions to the federal workforce, including former U.S. service members.
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New Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., will be giving the Democratic response to the State of the Union address March 4, 2025. (Reuters)
Lennox, for his part, said he was notified about his firing in a Feb. 13 email, which read in part: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
He provided a copy of the email to local news outlets and members of Congress who criticized DOGE’s decision to cut VA jobs as part of its effort to trim federal spending.
While the email suggested Lennox had been fired for his performance, he told news outlets later that he had never received a performance evaluation during his two-month tenure.
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Marine veteran Andrew Lennox later found out he was among roughly 1,000 employees the Department of Government Efficiency abruptly fired at the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lennox said he later realized it was identical to the emails received by other VA colleagues cut by DOGE.
“Every single person got the same copy-and-pasted email,” he told Mother Jones in a February interview.
“There were people that were on probationary periods because they were recently promoted for outstanding performance,” he said. “That’s what really angered me, everybody else that had been there for a long time.”
Lennox later found out he was among roughly 1,000 employees DOGE abruptly fired at the VA.
That news was noted by DOGE in a press release the following day, announcing the layoffs of “non-bargaining unit probationary employees who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, has detailed the Democrats’ efforts to hinder Elon Musk, left, and his Department of Government Efficiency. (Reuters)
While DOGE said the personnel cuts will save the department more than $98 million annually, Lennox has taken issue with the manner in which the VA employees were notified — as well as prospects for continued care and services for veterans.
“If you want to lay me off as an in a reduction of force, please do that, but give us the time to prepare for a proper transition so that the veterans don’t suffer from this,” Lennox told a local news outlet in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Slotkin, a former House member and CIA analyst, likely will focus a portion of her speech on the sharp reductions DOGE has made to the federal workforce as it seeks to shrink the federal budget.
In a press release announcing her rebuttal, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said Slotkin “will offer a bold vision of hope, unity, and a brighter future for everyone, not just the wealthy few at the top.”
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Her remarks are slated to begin at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
