Rep. Randy Feenstra told a crowd of business and community leaders at the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce on Friday morning that the public doesn't hear enough about the good things that the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency is doing in the second Trump administration.

Among the workers who were shown the door were Department of Agriculture staffers tasked with addressing the ongoing bird flu outbreak which has seen the deaths of more than 100 million domesticated birds and contributed to the soaring cost of eggs. The AP reported the department was later "scrambling" to rehire some of those workers.

Feenstra said the bird flu researchers getting caught up in the cuts wasn't "appropriate."
"Some of these things happen with a new administration and if you have concern, please come to me," he said.

When asked by Iowa House District 2 Rep. Bob Henderson, R-Sioux City, about the possibility of DOGE cuts affecting grants for agriculture research, Feenstra said a lot of programs were being caught up in a "bucket" but that he was hopeful important missions would shake out of the bucket in the next six weeks.