Rep. Blake Moore speaks to frustration surrounding DOGE and mass layoffs

SALT LAKE CITY — Following the mass federal layoffs, a growing number of people are expressing concerns about whether they will be next.

Republican Rep. Blake Moore, co-chair of the DOGE Caucus, joined KSL NewsRadio to discuss the concerns he’s heard regarding the cuts and what he knows about how Hill Air Force Base could be impacted.

Below is a partial transcript of this interview as well as the full podcast.

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KSL NewsRadio edited the following transcript for brevity and clarity.

HOST DAVE NORIEGA: A few weeks ago, I got a text and it was talking about Rep. Moore hosting a town hall, and it was in my neighborhood. And he wanted to talk about his work on the DOGE Caucus. And he wanted to hear from folks, get their ideas of how we could make government more efficient… So in the past month, what was your takeaway?

GUEST REP. BLAKE MOORE: I think angst is the best way I can put it… And the things that I’ve been frustrated with—and as I’ve heard from folks—is ‘Well, we’re just not getting clear information and it’s been very confusing’ and nothing is worse in these situations than when you’re just confused and you get mixed messages.

HOST DEBBIE DUJANOVIC: Do you have any room or intent to negotiate with DOGE to preserve jobs? Are you having discussions directly with the Oval Office or with Elon Musk that would preserve some of these jobs, whether in Utah or elsewhere?

MOORE: Yes, we have direct communication with the White House. They’ve heard from us several times. There’s a legislative affairs team that has actually been very sincere and working very hard to capture our input. And we will go back and communicate (with) them.

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One example of that is, I believe there was a misunderstanding from the administration side of the DOGE world on the actual definition of a probationary employee. There’s an assumption that a probationary employee might just be a brand new employee, somebody that has been there less than six to nine months or something. That’s not the case.

That could be somebody that has decades of experience. They’ve just been transitioned to a new role or a new division, and then they are probationary in that period. Those folks have got an enormous amount of expertise. You have depot work at Hill Air Force Base, nuclear work, all the stuff that goes on the 75th Air Base Wing. That type of stuff is irreplaceable, and retention efforts are far cheaper than finding (a) new replacement and training for that.

So we made sure to help them understand when you’re going after probationary employees, you’re not just taking somebody that’s brand new that might be able to find a new job more easily.

These are people that we really want to make sure they stay in this role. And they’ve delayed any more announcements to that, and they’re getting a chance to look through it. So I think in the coming weeks, there may be some announcements about the Department of Defense, but our communication about what the reality is has been well received with the administration.

DUJANOVIC: How will this impact Hill Air Force Base?

MOORE: What we’re hearing is that this isn’t going to be a devastating approach to the numbers of folks. So I’m in a position where I can’t necessarily get out ahead of it. We’re working directly with Hill Air Force Base.

They have provided us all their mission-critical work and their priorities, and we’re making sure the administration has a good sense of what that is.

Related: Workers impacted by federal layoffs have resources, Utah Department of Workforce Services says