By Megan Moser
Eleven people have been terminated this week at a USDA agricultural research facility in Manhattan as part of broad cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, a source said Friday.
The people fired were employees at the Center for Grain and Animal Health Research, 1515 College Ave. The center is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service department.
The source, who spoke to The Mercury on the condition of anonymity, said he was among the people fired. Like many federal employees across the country, he said he and his coworkers were notified by an email that said, “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
