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Union worried more fed cuts coming in fall
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 16, 2025
The union that represents Hoover park and museum staff worries that Trump cuts will hurt local services.
Ruark Hotopp, National Vice President for District 8 of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the hiring freeze and spending cuts will make it difficult to perform essential tasks.
With President Trump’s executive order implementing a hiring freeze set to expire on April 20, Hotopp said he does not feel confident those jobs will return.
“We worry about a reduction in force rather than an expansion,” he said.
In addition to a hiring freeze, Trump ordered limits on credit card spending to $1 per purchase. Hotopp said those two orders make running the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Hoover Library and Museum difficult.
“We’re not seeing a lot of movement being allowed,” he said. “(The Trump administration) looks to reduce and not hire.”
The museum has not been able to replace its public relations employee and may lose its registrar.
The park may lose two interpreters this week among its 14 employees. A probationary maintenance employee’s position is in question. However, a remote, out-of-state procurement officer found office space with the Bureau of Land Management and will be able to continue working for the park.
Even with the hiring freeze set to expire in a few days, as of Tuesday, neither the park nor museum posted open positions on USAJOBS.gov.
The only nearby federal agency listing job openings is the Veterans Health Administration in Iowa City, which is excluded from Trump’s order. After the president offered buyouts, VA job openings rose to about 30 early on and have now dipped to eight. All eight are medical professional positions.
Hotopp said that between Trump cutting off funds to universities over anti-Semitic protests to judges lifting injunctions on mass layoffs of probationary employees, the AFGE does not know how it all will affect funding and staff levels.
The union recommends its members to “be vigilant.”
“In Homeland Security and at the VA, both (parent) agencies are sending out communications to staff that there may be a (further) reduction in force coming,” Hotopp said. “They’re offering deferred resignations, early retirements and other buyouts so people will voluntarily leave their positions. No positions are safe.”
He notes that probationary employees are “at will” employment.
“So they are at prime risk of being terminated,” the District 8 VP said.
Hotopp notes that the park and museum have fairly small numbers of employees, meaning that even small staff cuts will likely cause a significant burden on remaining employees.
He notes that the park typically hires seasonal staff during the summer, but maybe not in 2025.
The National Park Service is a bureau under the Department of the Interior. Hotopp said AFGE learned that the department plans more cuts this fall.
“It could be there is no funding for any full-time employees and (certain bureaus) may be indefinitely shuttered, even parks that have been around for a long time. That’s the talk.”
The AFGE considers the Trump cuts “unnecessary,” arguing that certain government services are constitutionally mandated.
“We’re an apolitical service that serves Republican and Democratic presidents,” Hotopp said. “They change, but we change with them. ... They’re putting hardworking Americans dedicated to public service (out of a job). They’re not just eliminating waste, they’re eliminating human capital.”
He said the AFGE is not only concerned for its members, but the services they provide to the public.
“There’s also the diminished capacity (for staff) to do their job and the overall impact to a community like you all have,” Hotopp said.
Most federal agencies’ budgets spend more on staff than anything else, he said.
“When you talk about budget cuts with any organization, you’re biggest piece of the pie is always salaries and benefits,” he said. “When it concerns budget cuts, you’re always talking about terminating employees. They have to coldly look at the bottom line, ‘Do we actually need all these positions?’ ... So they’re coldly talking about people’s lives.”
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