LIVELaura Flanders & Friends - Cuts, Shutdowns & Civil Rights Attacks: Federal Workers Fight Back
About 750,000 people are on unpaid leave as the U.S. government shutdown continues -- but some of the most caring parts of the government's work have been shut down for months. Take the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for example. This is one of the only free resources available to Americans facing housing discrimination, but in a shocking complaint letter submitted to Senator Elizabeth Warren on September 22, 2025, civil rights attorneys Palmer Heenan, Paul Osadebe and two other whistleblowers describe an agency in crisis. Staff has been slashed by 70% since Donald Trump took office, civil rights cases have been abandoned, and political appointees are allegedly overriding legal findings to allow discrimination. Every layoff and budget cut by the Trump administration, both within HUD and across federal agencies, is part of a larger plan to create chaos, end civil rights protections, legalize segregation and exert unitary executive power. Heenan and Osadebe, members of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), are calling on federal employees to uphold their oath to constitution and protect Americans. And they've paid the price: both Heenan and Osadebe were fired by HUD in what has been called a "stunning act of illegal retaliation." In this conversation, the two share their story, what it means for civil rights and how unions can fight for government accountability. "No one is asking for a leg up or an extra hand or whatever the case might be. We're just asking to get rid of discrimination. And so I hope the future will tell the story of people doing just that, coming together, going to Congress and saying, 'These are our rights. You passed them into law decades ago. Fight for the rights that we have now.'" - Palmer Heenan "The thing that will actually get us through this is solidarity, recognizing what potential power we have as federal workers . . . [The administration wants] to create fear, which leads to silence, which lets things be dismantled without anyone standing up and fighting and saying, 'This is illegal, this is wrong and this is harming people.' It's up to federal workers, the ones in the building, to actually do that." - Paul Osadebe. Guests: Palmer Heenan: Attorney, HUD Whistleblower; Member, AFGE 476; Paul Osadebe: Attorney, HUD Whistleblower; Steward, AFGE 476.
Series Website: https://www.lauraflanders.org
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