A recent Iowa State University graduate says after starting his dream job at the U-S-D-A’s National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in December, he is among the federal employees who were laid off last Friday.
Logan Conner had worked at the USDA lab on the Ames campus for two and a half years and was named student employee of the year in 2022. He’s filed an appeal, through government’s Merit System Protection Board, to try to get his full-time job back.
“We were doing a lot of different research on ways to mitigate nutrient runoff without affecting yield,” he said. “There have been numerous people who have been laid off because of this decision. There is research that isn’t going to be able to be done.”
Conner spoke during a news conference organized by the Iowa Democratic Party. Terri Wollenberg, another speaker at the online forum, worked in the reception area at a Veterans Affairs office in Cedar Rapids that provides mental health services to veterans. She is joining a class action lawsuit to challenge her firing.
“I’m a 32 year veteran of both the Navy and Army and I just got a start in the federal workforce,” she said. “I don’t have a job, so what do I have to lose?”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week it plans to rescind the firings of several people working on the federal government’s response to the current outbreak of bird flu in poultry and cattle.