WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) will be joined by Cameron McKenzie at President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress this evening. Against the backdrop of increased and uncharacteristic forest fires in New Jersey, McKenzie abruptly lost his job in the United States Forest Service as part of wider DOGE purges across the federal government workforce. As a result of losing his job, Cameron is now planning to sell his home in Blairstown, New Jersey.
“Cameron McKenzie believed deeply in the work he was doing with the United States Forest Service. He was taking care of our environment and serving as a steward to one of our nation’s most valued treasures. Unfortunately, Cameron’s post was part of Elon Musk’s wider effort to purge the federal workforce, and its impact extends beyond the void left in the Forest Service and every other federal agency. Cameron’s future is now uncertain, and he will have to sell his home in Blairstown. What Musk is doing is hemorrhaging our nation’s talented workforce and unduly harming people and communities nationwide, including New Jerseyans. It is my honor to be joined by Cameron this evening, and it is my hope that his courage and resilience are recognized for what they are: patriotic,” said Senator Booker.
Cameron McKenzie is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale University and lives and works in Blairstown, New Jersey. Upon receiving his master’s degree in forestry, he successfully applied to the highly competitive and prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship Program (PMF), whereupon he was assigned to serve in the United States Forest Service as a Community Engagement Specialist. The position afforded him the opportunity to manage U.S. Forest Service outreach programs across more than twenty national forests in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Unfortunately, Cameron’s job with the Forest Service was terminated following wider DOGE purges across the federal government workforce. His story, and those of former federal workers, was featured in a February story in The New York Times.