Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo wanted to send a message during Tuesday night’s Presidential address to Congress by inviting as his guest Daniel Sandecki, a disabled U.S. Army veteran who lost his job at the Palo Alto VA in February as part of the federal workforce reduction.
“I felt it was important for Donald Trump to see the faces of those who have been impacted by his decisions,” Liccardo, whose district covers parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.
But then something weird happened.
About two hours after Liccardo posted on social media about Sandecki being his guest, the former VA worker found out he was no longer a former VA worker. His job was being restored.
“I am still trying to process all of it. I’m in disbelief,” said Sandecki, who was still attending the speech at the Capitol on Tuesday night. “I don’t have great words for how I feel.”
A 10-year Army veteran who was injured while serving, Sandecki was hired in October 2024 as an emergency management specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Palo Alto Health Care System. His job was to ensure continuity of care for Bay Area veterans during all sorts of natural and man-made emergencies from power outages to earthquakes and wildfires.
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He received an email Feb. 13 informing him that he was terminated. He said he was grateful to find out Tuesday that he was employed again, and Liccardo also was happy that Sandecki’s circumstances changed – even if it took a bit of the steam off the message he was trying to send.
“I would like to think this was the most productive political post of my Congressional career of eight weeks,” the former San Jose mayor joked. He said his office found out Tuesday that Sandecki had been sent an email a couple of days earlier informing him of his restoration of employment, but he didn’t receive it because it was sent to the email address of the job he no longer had.
“This is no way to run a railroad,” Liccardo said. “We have a bunch of reckless rookies in DOGE deciding who to fire. Not one of those decision makers has served in a war or fought in one or helped an injured veteran in a hospital. This is a terrible way to run a government and a horrible way to serve our country.”
