Thousands of federal government employees across the country were fired in the first month since President Trump announced his plan to cut what he has labeled excessive government spending.
The Trump administration’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will carry out the plan to downsize the 2.4-million-person workforce. President Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 11, titled the “Workforce Optimization Initiative,” outlining plans for the cuts.
The executive order states that the purpose of the plan is to “restore accountability to the American public…By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity.”
There is no official count of the total federal employees dismissed, but in the past week alone, the administration has fired 10,000 workers across the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Interior, Health and Human Services, Education, and other agencies.
In addition to the firings, around 75,000 workers, or 4 percent of federal workers, took President Trump’s buyout program which gave federal employees the option to resign immediately but still receive pay and benefits until October. The deadline to apply for “deferred resignation” was originally on Feb. 6, however, a federal judge extended the deadline to Feb. 12.
The large-scale reductions have impacted the nation’s capital, which is home to around 20 percent of the 2.4 million federal workers, and those living outside of Washington D.C.
As of 2024, the federal government employs 23,114 civilian workers in Kentucky, according to a Congressional Research Service report. The largest employers of federal employees in Kentucky are the Army with 7,380 civilian workers, Veterans Affairs with 6,111 workers, and the Treasury with 3,269 workers according to data from the federal payrolls.
One federal worker in Kentucky, Taylor Boss, a student at Asbury University, found herself without a job on Feb. 14 after being fired from her job at Camp Nelson National Monument located in Nicholasville, KY. Boss had been hired by the National Park as part of its “Pathways” program, the entry level park position and began working there in July of 2024.
Boss worked as a park interpreter, guiding visitors, developing programs, and researching Civil War soldiers’ biographies. Boss was fired from her job at the park alongside several of her colleagues by an email that stated, “I’m writing to inform you that that you’re receiving a termination notice. Review the termination notice. Begin offboarding process.”
Boss is one of the 1,000 National Park Service workers who were fired nationally as part of the Administration’s federal workforce cuts and made up one of the 236 National Park Service workers in Kentucky.
While national parks across the country have seen cuts, Boss says that the cuts for Camp Nelson were especially impactful.
“We were a really small staff as it was… and so there were big parks who lost two or three people and we are a small park, and we lost four people. It was a massive hit. Our archeology department got cut in half.”
Boss says that as a result of the cuts, certain projects that were planned are likely to be suspended.
“We had been working on an exhibit that we were hoping would be like a genealogy where people could come and look for their ancestors and digitally search that up in a database. I don’t know how realistic that is anymore, frankly.”
Camp Nelson served as a supply depot during the Civil War, however, it was also the largest recruitment center for black soldiers in the state. It now serves to educate people on its history and serves as a way for ancestors of the soldiers to understand their family history. Boss fears that the reduction in workers will risk undermining Camp Nelson’s purpose.
“We’re a link to people’s family history… I think that the stories that we told at Camp Nelson helped to bring dignity and shed light onto some more marginalized groups. A lot of these stories, I feel like would be completely lost in some ways.”
In addition to the long-term functioning of parks being threatened, with the spring and summer months approaching, the reduction in National Park employees could mean that parks will have a harder time dealing with the seasonal tourists.
“If you’ve planned your bucket list trip to a national park, you may have to take into consideration that you won’t have the full experience and reschedule for next year in the hopes it gets better,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan organization.
Beyond operational challenges, Boss says morale among National Park Service employees, including those at Camp Nelson, will suffer.
“The thing about the Park Service is it’s so tightly knit, there’s so much community and friendship in the broader spectrum of the Park Services. When all these people are affected, it affects all of us. Especially like Camp Nelson {which} is full of wonderful, passionate people, and when you demoralize people, it’s going to be a hit.”
Photo courtesy of ABC News.
