Kansas City's Royals, two-time World Series champions, typically celebrate baseball's opening day. However, Jason Buck was reminded of his uncertainties during this year's home opener against the Cleveland Guardians.

After being fired from the General Services Administration and then put on administrative leave until his job was reinstated, Buck accepted a part-time job bartending at the team's Kauffman Stadium. In the hopes of securing a more stable career, he took a pay reduction from his previous position to work for the federal government a year ago, overseeing fleets of government cars for the Secret Service, the Pentagon, and the Veterans Affairs department.

"For me, it was a risk worth taking," Buck said to CNN. "I understood the importance of being employed by the government."

Although the nation's capital has been rocked by steep government layoffs spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, the repercussions are felt well beyond Washington.

Large regional centers for federal agencies are preparing for further rounds of cuts in the upcoming weeks in the Kansas City area, where the federal government is the largest employer. Workers in some agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, say they anticipate learning their fate in the middle of April.

Some government departments may be cut in half under Trump administration plans; thousands of Kansas City's 30,000 federal employees will likely have to find new employment as a result.

"To be honest, the city will suffer as a result. The people will suffer greatly as a result," Mayor Quinton Lucas told CNN. "Their families will suffer, and many secondary businesses in cities like Kansas City will suffer as well."

A business "multiplier effect"
According to the Mid-America Research Council, economic activity in other industries would begin to slow down with every federal employee who loses their job and cuts back on spending. The council forecasts that job losses in such businesses might surpass those in the government.

According to a preliminary projection by MARC economist Frank Lenk, Kansas City might lose 14,600 employees overall if the federal government cuts its personnel by 20%. According to Lenk, the industries that would be most affected are construction, retail, healthcare, professional services, and hospitality.

Lenk tells CNN that there is a multiplication effect.

The city's normally robust spring real estate market is already feeling the effects of this uncertainty. A number of government employees told CNN that they are concerned that if they are unable to pay their mortgage, they would have to sell their house. Before a force reduction would occur, one employee planned the closing of the purchase of a new home.

Because alternative possibilities are more costly due to high prices and interest rates and a lack of available properties, laid-off workers are currently looking for ways to stay put, according to Michael Pierce, whose Seek Realty represents buyers and sellers in Kansas City.

However, he asserts that those figures are probably a lagging measure of dread in the city.

"It will be too late by the time the statistics show what we're up against," Pierce remarked as he drove through some of the area's fed-heavy communities. "We must examine the psychological impact this has on the housing market and the overall economy."

The Trump administration hinted last month that it would sell at least four government buildings in Kansas City, raising concerns about whether office buildings in the city's downtown will be demolished. Although it later removed the building from a list of properties for "accelerated disposal," the General Services Administration had originally listed the Bolling building as one of those properties it intended to sell.

Workers from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Social Security Administration had returned to the office, and by daybreak on a recent weekday, the building's two parking lots were almost filled. Nearby Waterbird Coffee has profited from the additional visitors, but owner Brian Denham warns that layoffs could affect the company's bottom line.

Denman told CNN, "That building gives us a good percentage of sales." "They don't know if they're going to have a job within the next hour, the next week," he said of federal employees who come into the shop.

Lucas concedes that the area cannot accommodate all of the unemployed workers, but he says he is working to expedite the hiring of fired employees for positions in his administration at City Hall.

Lucas, a Democrat, says CNN, "We're not building a new 4,000-person factory to replace 4,000 jobs with the IRS at the same time." "To be honest, the skills of these people will differ greatly."

There are hundreds of job openings in the Kansas City area, and the unemployment rate is quite low at 4.2%. However, it could be challenging to pair them with employees that possess the necessary skills. According to Lucas, the most well-known businesses in the region, such as Oracle Health Care, Garmin Technology, and Hallmark greeting cards, aren't hiring a lot of government employees. Additionally, despite the fact that the tax preparation firm H&R Block is located in the area, IRS staff members claim that they are prohibited from working in tax-related positions for a year following their departure due to a noncompete agreement.

Workers brace themselves for the worst.
One employee who is struggling with a new reality is Buck. On March 28, he resumed work at GSA after his employment was renewed.

However, as a precaution, he intends to maintain working part-time to save more money and to continue applying for other employment.

Buck states, "I'm not sure if I'm going back just to be a part of a reduction in force at some point." "I don't know what to anticipate."

Having been with the Internal Revenue Service for 16 years, Daniel Scharpenburg anticipated that his seniority would protect him from the biggest cuts. Scharpenburg, however, is concerned that more cuts may be made to the collections department where he works.

Concerned about his two teenage children's financial stability as well as the competition for jobs in the event of his layoff, Scharpenburg took a part-time work at a movie theater.

"My age is forty-five. Scharpenburg told CNN, "I'm too old to be working two jobs. "On certain days, after work, I head straight to the movie theater."

The local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union is led by Shannon Ellis, a 28-year IRS veteran. She has inquired with her real estate agent about the potential sale price of her house. She proposed that she and her spouse purchase a mobile home and move to a lakefront property owned by her daughter. Ellis's primary worry was covering her husband's and her own medical expenses because they both have health problems.

Ellis claims that in order to survive, "I would have to literally sell my house, pay off everything, and hope to get a job that at least would pay me more than minimum wage."

Treka Henry is employed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a senior program analyst. As part of a continuous force reduction, she anticipates losing her job. Her family has chosen not to take a vacation this year and has canceled their usual housekeeper.

With tears in her eyes, Henry remarked, "We cannot predict our future."

Republicans defend budget cuts.
The blue counties on either side of the state boundary are those that are home to Kansas City. However, Trump won a large number of the exurban and suburban counties surrounding the city. Voters have also shown that they continue to back him.

Sonny Perdue, Trump's Agriculture secretary during his first term, promised $300 million in cost savings and improved access to farmers by moving two USDA divisions to Kansas City. Now, GSA is planning to sell one of USDA's facilities close to the state boundary, making it one of the agencies that is anticipated to shrink.

In October 2019, Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill to relocate almost all of USDA to his home state, demonstrating his support for moving agencies outside of Washington. When asked about how recent DOGE actions have affected federal employees, Hawley told CNN that he thinks the majority of people in his state support them.

According to Hawley, who told CNN that the changes would increase the agencies' efficiency, "I think most Missourians would say they would like to see a freeze on federal aid and they want to see Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid … benefits delivered on time."

Others see that the cuts are occurring nearer to home. Some local Treasury employees who voted for Trump have apologized, according to Ellis.

"Look, if I knew what was going to happen, that all these attacks on federal agencies, I would have voted a different way," Ellis said CNN after being approached by people in the state and building.

Republican Representative Mark Alford of Missouri incited his suburban Kansas City constituents, some of whom had lost their jobs, in late February when he said that "God has a plan and a purpose for your life" and that their jobs were not supposed to be a "lifetime appointment."

Alford's remarks prompted a scathing reply from Lucas.

"I am also faithful," the mayor said to CNN. "However, these people have bills to pay tomorrow."