Federal workers across the PNW are being fired by the Trump administration. They warn of impacts on wildfires, science and historic landmarks – The Spokesman Review
Source: The Spokesman-Review
If you or someone you know is a federal worker who lost a job recently in Washington or Idaho and would like to share your story, please email news@spokesman.com with the subject line “federal job.”
The letter from the federal government arrived in an email Thursday. It informed the Department of Agriculture worker that he was fired.
First came a wave of panic. Then came feelings of betrayal.
“How could they be so callous?” his wife, Suzanne Anderson, asked. “Like we aren’t people? His name is just text on a spreadsheet. We are not people to them.”
Dennis is 61, lives in Moscow, Idaho, and works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture studying plants on the rolling hills of the Palouse. He declined to share his last name for fear of retaliation from the same government officials who fired him. The whirlwind of emotions from being fired, as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash federal spending by terminating large portions of the workforce, left him feeling too disjointed to articulate his feelings Saturday.
“Next week is his last paycheck. We don’t have health care. It’s not easy to get another job,” she said. “We love the Palouse … We raised our family here. We wanted to retire here. Are we going to have to leave?”
Dennis’ letter – the same letter thousands of employees in the federal government received Thursday – told him something Anderson could only describe as “a total lie.”
“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” the letter said. “For this reason, the Agency informs you that the Agency is removing you from your position.”
Layoffs are happening throughout the federal government, with large cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Interior Department and others. The New York Times reported that the layoffs targeted most of an estimated 200,000 workers who were on probation, a period of time in which employees are easier to remove. Probation is required of all federal employees who enter a new position within the government, and it is not an indicator of poor performance or wrongful behavior.
As of Saturday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has fired around 3,400 employees, according to a news release from U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell. This includes the loss of 1,400 U.S. Forest Service employees, said Matthew Brossard, vice president of the Forest Service Council. More terminations are expected in the coming days.
Brossard is working to tabulate the employees who have been let go, but the numbers are “hard to comprehend,” he said. The gap left from these workers will be significant, Brossard warned.
Dennis was on probation as a new plant scientist for the USDA. He has felt like he was going to be on the chopping block for a while. Before his termination, he was getting signals that he and other employees were barred from speaking to the media.
While his letter told him his termination was based on his performance, nothing about Dennis’ work indicated he was underperforming. His boss is even trying to fight his termination, Anderson said. He must try to disprove his “performance-based” firing in an attempt to receive unemployment benefits.
The hills of the Palouse are covered with wheat, lentils and other food crops. It’s home to some of the highest-yielding dryland wheat fields in the world, with farmers often harvesting 100 bushels or more per acre. Dennis’ job is to continue researching those crops : how they grow, how they flourish and how drastic changes in weather or droughts can affect a farmer’s harvest.
The government can rely on that research to communicate with farmers about crop production, Anderson said. Farmers also are given open invitations to tour with the researchers, and the two groups tend to learn from each other.
“The science and the research is important to get what they need. It comes down to economics. Changes in the environment change crops and can change the soil. Researchers have to look at those things. The wheat farmers, especially,” she said. “They need the researchers. We are all tied together in Washington and Idaho. It’s not just the wheat, it’s all the crops. It’s vital for food.”
So does the administration know how vital the Palouse’s crop production is to the world? “No,” Anderson said. “The manner in which these firings were executed, they clearly didn’t do their research.”
The government has declined to say how many workers have been laid off in the states of Washington and Idaho.
“Secretary Rollins fully supports President Trump’s directive to optimize government operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s ability to better serve American farmers, ranchers, loggers and the agriculture community. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve th
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