Sen. Tina Smith to bring park ranger fired during federal layoffs to Trump's congressional address
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota is bringing a national park ranger fired during mass federal layoffs to President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday.
Smith has invited Kate Severson, a former program manager at Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota who was abruptly terminated last month.
"Park Rangers like Kate work tirelessly to keep us safe in some of Minnesota's most wild and extreme areas, including Voyageurs National Park," Smith said in a release Monday.
Severson was in her job at Voyageurs for seven months, and worked as a park ranger for years in Texas and Colorado for years prior.
Around 1,000 National Park Service employees have been fired, which is roughly 5% of the agency.
"This recent loss and betrayal of our newest cohort of Park Service employees weakens our ability to protect these parks and preserve them for our children," Smith said.
Mr. Trump has said the mass layoffs will slash wasteful spending and make the nation's civil workforce more responsive to his administration's dictates.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota's 6th Congressional District has invited State Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, and Buzz Schneider and Rob McClanahan from the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team to Mr. Trump's address.
Tuesday night will mark the first time Mr. Trump addresses a joint session of Congress since taking office for his second term as president. His speech is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
CBS News will have comprehensive all-day coverage of the address and the Democratic response starting at 8 a.m. U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan will deliver the Democrats' response.
