As job cuts roil federal agencies, KNX News' Mike Simpson sat down with three employees who have felt the cuts firsthand and can speak to the lasting impacts they will have on our country.
Listen to “Fired Feds: Voices of the Government Layoffs,” a KNX In Depth special.
Guests included:
Liesl Drew, an anthropologist and tribal engagement specialist with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. She moved to Southern California from Colorado for the job just a month ago and is now stuck in a high-rent area with no work.
Despite being an expert in her field and able to speak multiple languages, Drew is on food benefits and unemployment. "And I'm not ashamed of that, but it's wholly unnecessary and a huge waste," she said.
"I think that their goal is to drain the government of anyone who values any kind of independent critical thinking, or they're eliminating intellectual complexity so that they have no people who resist them, and that's pretty scary."
Kenan Chan, a biological services technician and park ranger at the Channel Islands National Park, where he helped maintain the protected kelp forests. He has no idea what will happen to the several multi-year projects he was involved in before his firing.
He recalled the email he received letting him know he would be losing his job. "Reading the phrasing of it. It basically said that we were not being effective in our job, not knowledgeable, or did not have the right skills to hold our job. It was hurtful and untrue."
Chan said, "The National Park Service has been historically understaffed and underfunded for many, many years, and so many of us, myself included, were working jobs for multiple people just to accomplish all the tasks that were needed."
Ellen Willis-Norton, a biologist with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management who was told her skills were “no longer needed.”
"I've been in the field of fisheries biology for a long time now, and I have never seen such a group of hardworking people until I entered the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management," she said. "...I've never had that much work in my life, and so it's just confusing to me."
She’s part of a class action lawsuit challenging DOGE.
Replay the entire special above or on the free Audacy app.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
