Washington, Oct. 22 -- Rep. Don Beyer issued the following press release:
Originally posed on: Dogwood
Arlington County resident John Spykerman was on vacation with his family in Glasgow, Scotland, when he got the email last year that he was being fired from the US State Department.
"It was too early to actually check in, so we took a bus into the downtown area," Spykerman said in an interview. "While my family was getting ice cream, I checked my phone and there it was."
Spykerman, a Foreign Service officer with over two decades on the job, had been preparing for the worst after President Donald Trump got elected in 2024. As a candidate, Trump had been critical of foreign aid, and on the day of his inauguration, he moved to pause all fo...