Neguse, Huffman Demand Firefighters and Seasonal Employees be Exempt from Trump Attacks on Federal Workforce

February 14, 2025

Lafayette, CO — Following public reports that the Trump Administration is directing mass firings of federal workers and freezing hiring of essential positions, House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (CO-02) and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Natural Resources Jared Huffman, acted swiftly to defend essential wildland firefighters and seasonal employees. In a letter dated Friday, February 14th, to the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI), the lawmakers underscored the importance of wildland firefighters, wildfire mitigation personnel, public safety personnel, and seasonal staff to our communities and public safety. They urged clear and immediate exemptions from executive directives that freeze hiring for these critical roles.

In addition to pressing concerns for firefighters and surrounding communities, as well as the impacts on critical wildfire response and mitigation efforts, a “hiring freeze” on wildland firefighters and seasonal employee undermines wildfire preparedness and severely impacts the essential operations of National Parks—including upkeep and maintenance, sanitation, visitor safety, and more.

Read the full letter HERE, with excerpts below:

“As you know, the Executive Order President Trump issued on January 20, 2025 to freeze federal civilian hiring within all executive agencies is shortsighted and extremely dangerous. This hiring freeze will greatly impact both USDA and DOI, which oversee critical wildfire and public safety operations throughout our federal lands. If the administration’s hiring freezes apply to vital wildland firefighting, public safety, and seasonal National Park Service (NPS) positions, there will be detrimental impacts on every state—hindering our country’s ability to fight wildfires, protect public and private lands, ensure the safety of national park visitors and staff, and provide critical support and economic benefits for communities,” wrote Assistant Leader Neguse and Ranking Member Huffman.

“Our nation continues to face record-breaking wildfires year after year, impacting states over the course of the entire year, as wildfire season is no longer limited to the summer months. More and more communities now live with the threat of wildfire, and the cost of destructive wildfire continues to rise. Pausing the hiring of wildland firefighters and wildfire mitigation, support and operations personnel could seriously impact our ability to conduct necessary wildfire mitigation and suppression work.”

Neguse and Huffman continued: “Additionally, we are deeply concerned about the hiring freeze for both seasonal and permanent national park staff. National parks are seeing record-breaking numbers of visitors each year, with over 325 million visits in 2023 alone1. These national parks are heavily reliant on seasonal staff to ensure smooth and safe park operations throughout the busy summer months, and the NPS typically hires more than 6,000 seasonal employees to carry out this important work. The hiring freeze has already reportedly resulted in the rescission of more than 2,000 NPS seasonal and permanent positions across the country, in addition to thousands of employees who are currently left in the dark as they await further guidance. [...] Without these critical positions, national parks and federal lands will be unable to carry out critical maintenance and operations work that keeps parks running smoothly and safely and provides a positive experience for visitors.”

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