Des Moines, IA – This afternoon, IDP Chair Rita Hart was joined in a virtual press conference by federal employees in Iowa who shared their experience with the ongoing mass firings being carried out by Donald Trump.

“I was met at the door by my director, she let me know that I was done. I had no idea, it hit me out of the blue. I didn’t even know I was on a list that could possibly be considered, but it appears that any one of us could be,” said Terri Wollenberg, a former program support assistant at the Cedar Rapids Vet Center and U.S. Army and Navy veteran with 32 years of continuous service. “Doug Collins, the secretary of the VA, said he would watch out for me, he would watch out for veterans and protect us if he was nominated as the secretary. Well, of the 220,000 of us who lost our positions with the government, many of us are veterans, and I’m one of them. It’s proof any one of us can be eliminated.”

The mass firings of federal employees that thousands of Iowans are facing could have far-reaching implications for our state as a whole. “With how this lab has been impacted, there have been numerous people that have been laid off by this decision. There’s just going to have to be projects that need to be cut. There’s research that isn’t going to be able to be done because they don’t have the manpower to do so now. This was very important, long-term research for public health and our farmers across the state and it’s just been a really frustrating process for everyone involved,” said Logan Conner, a former employee of the USDA at the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames.

If you were unable to join the press conference this afternoon (Feb 20th), you can request a copy of the recording via email to [email protected].