Several workers who lost their federal jobs as part of thousands of layoffs by the Department of Government Efficiency said Friday they did not expect to lose their employment after President Donald Trump took office.

The cuts, led by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, are in attempts to reduce the nation's $2 trillion annual deficit, they say.

"We're talking about fire and rescue squads in rural areas that can't afford to replace equipment, we're talking about water supply systems in small villages and towns that can't pay for the upgrade," said Matthew S., whose position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture was cut last month.

He, and several former federal workers impacted by DOGE cuts, did not provide their last names at a roundtable with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-20, on Friday out of fear of harassment.

Until a few weeks ago, Matthew provided loans and grants to rural communities across upstate New York.

"There's no way to operate these programs with people operating centrally in a state as large as New York," he said. "...You cannot just have people do more work. There's a limited number of hours in the day and there are timing requirements in the federal regulations, the legislation that governs these programs. It's impossible to met those requirements that have been passed by our legislators without sufficient manpower."

Tonko led the 90-minute conversation and condemned the DOGE cuts as cruel and illegal, and said Democrats will continue to fight the purge of federal agencies in court.

"This is cruel, unnecessary and the intellectual capacity of this nation, that I would compare to any nation, and we're going to destroy that?" the congressman said. "...This is a painful time. We want to stop that. We want to show respect to our workers and we want to highlight what a significant outcome it is to have all of you."

Contractors, researchers, scientists, nonprofit workers and others at the table said they were shocked to learn their positions were eliminated, and it wasn't based on job performance.

The layoffs include researchers, people who processed tax returns for the IRS or distributed food assistance to low-income families. 

Courts continue to look skeptically at the legality of the Trump's administrations actions, and Tonko said he will focus on conversations with his Republicans colleagues about the impacts of the decisions and pending litigation to fight back.

Several new or temporary workers who lost their jobs were on probation, which is customary in the public sector, and said they were cut via email that was sent after-hours. Many people whose positions were eliminated did not see the message until they returned to the office the next day.

Dr. Elizabeth Fisher is a scientific researcher funded by the National Institute of Health, and said her work to better understand Alzheimer's disease has been interrupted by Trump's orders to freeze $2 billion in federal grants.

"We have no idea if we're going to get that money," Fisher said. "Is it worth it to put in more grants if they're not going to get funded? Putting in a grant is months of work. We all know it's a lot, and just for it to be in limbo? Because I think we all want treatments for these diseases."

The ongoing battle to pause federal grants is expected to impact Fisher's other research on Parkinson's disease and macular degeneration.

After the panel, one person who lost their federal job said they voted for Trump in November because of his campaign's focus to lower prices for families and to improve the economy, but they did not expect that included them losing their employment. They said they would have voted differently if they knew about the president's planned cuts, and that their work provided essential services and it was not the right way to cut back on spending.

As Elon Musk pressures Republicans on Capitol Hill to codify the recent budget cuts into law, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, NY-24, introduced a bill to create DOGE agencies at the state level.

And state Republican lawmakers in Albany introduced legislation to create a committee to slash state spending.

Sponsor Sen. Mark Walczyk said the state's proposed $252 billion budget is bloated, and the state needs a Commission on Government Efficiency, inspired by DOGE. But unlike the federal cuts, the effort would be bipartisan.

Legislative leaders would appoint Democrat and Republican lawmakers to the committee and draft a report of recommendations of where the state could reduce unnecessary or wasteful spending. 

"There needs to be some bipartisanship about where we can find waste, fraud and abuse and also where we can work together on creating more government efficiency," said Walczyk, a Republican from Watertown.

A Democrat has yet to sign on to the measure.