It was Feb. 14. But what nearly 400 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees got that day were not Valentines. They were pink slips.
The firings touched critical roles in EPA offices across the country, including dozens of scientists at the agency’s Chicago office.
The American people did not vote for toxic air and poisoned water. But that will be the consequence as Donald Trump and Elon Musk move not only to dismantle the programs that keep our families healthy and safe but to fire, recklessly, the dedicated civil servants who have devoted their careers to doing the same.
That same wave of civil servant layoffs ensnared about 3,400 US Forest Service employees and roughly 1,000 employees of the National Park Service (NPS). You might be struggling to make sense of a decision to institute big cuts at an agency tasked with managing forests and preventing and fighting wildfires immediately following some of the most destructive wildfires this country’s ever seen. But an examination of these mass firings also shows that senselessness and sloppiness – and utter inefficiency – are hallmarks of Trump and Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Further illustrating that sloppiness: across agencies, some of the most egregious terminations of vital workers had to be rescinded days later.
Imagine vacationing with your family at one of America’s beloved national parks and getting stuck in a bathroom for hours because something is wrong with the lock but the park doesn’t have a locksmith.
Nate Vince, Yosemite National Park’s locksmith, was also fired on Valentine’s Day. He explained in a post on Instagram that he was just three weeks shy of the end of his one-year probationary period, after apprenticing for four years under the park’s previous locksmith. He also noted Yosemite is the size of Rhode Island with “more locks than a small city,” for everything from a federal court to administrative buildings, gun safes, and more. “Without a locksmith I’m deeply concerned for the safety and security of the park and people in it,” Vince said. “The people that fired me don’t know who I am, or what I do. They simply don’t understand this park and how big and complex it is.” To continue reading, visit www.triceedneywire.com.