Mass firings and a spending freeze at the Department of Agriculture are cutting a wide swath of services to the public, from reducing wildfire risks to helping farmers arrange financing ahead of the spring planting season, according to agency employees and organizations in contact with the department.
At the Forest Service, two employees with direct knowledge of the agency’s actions — who requested anonymity to publicly discuss the agency’s internal actions — said firings continued through the weekend. The dismissals hit probational employees who’d been hired through incentives for the disabled as well as some longtime employees who’d changed jobs recently and thus become probationary in those roles.
In other cases, USDA employees said, workers in the senior executive service were reassigned to lower, grade-level positions, which have been less common historically in the Forest Service than other agencies.
Already short-staffed in some places, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency shed employees in field offices, where they help farmers enroll in conservation programs or sign up for federal loan guarantees.
