The Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau is making the case for the White House to grant an exception at Raystown Lake to the federal hiring freeze. This follows a recent executive order extending the freeze until mid-July.
In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced partial closures of campgrounds and beaches at Raystown Lake because the hiring freeze kept them from hiring seasonal and part-time staff. Each week since then, they’ve canceled campground reservations for anyone with paid reservations two weeks out.
Matt Price, the executive director of the Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau, sent an op-ed Friday to local media and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called, “Why federal campgrounds should open now.”
Price said park rangers should fit the hiring freeze’s public safety exemption.
“A public safety employee should have been able to be hired all along," Price said. "And park rangers are exactly that. I mean, three quarters of that job description is public safety related.”
In his op-ed, Price said prolonged campground closures do not serve American taxpayers. And he said if the goal is to privatize campgrounds, keeping them closed doesn’t attract potential buyers.
In a memorandum, the White House said this hiring freeze is meant to make the heads of agencies seek efficient use of existing personnel and funds to improve public services and delivery of those services.
Here is Matt Price's full op-ed:
Why federal campgrounds at Raystown should open NOW
Destination Marketing executive explains why closure of federal campgrounds needs to end immediately
Dear Editor,
Raystown Lake, operated by the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been unable to open the popular Seven Points and Nancy’s Boat-to-Shore campgrounds, and will likely be unable to open the Susquehannock Campground as well come Memorial Day Weekend as it normally would. The reason cited is the executive-order driven federal hiring freeze. The language of the executive order as written is found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/extension-of-hiring-freeze/
This order explicitly states that, “This memorandum does not apply to military personnel of the Armed Forces or to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety, and does not apply to the Executive Office of the President or the components thereof.”
Park ranger jobs, including those within USACE, exist to provide for public safety by enforcing regulations on federal lands. The park ranger positions at Raystown Lake were advertised on USAJobs.gov prior to the hiring freeze, and included the following duties, three of which are clearly public safety-oriented:
- Knowledge of emergency management methods, such as first aid, search/rescue. Conducts radio operation to provide communication services for operational activities in areas such as law enforcement/fire-fighting support and to protect life and/or property.
- Conducts patrols of land/water areas to oversee the operation of the public park areas. Enforces regulations, directs vehicular/pedestrian traffic, maintains crowd control, issues written guidance to assist visitors with compliance.
- Develops/conducts interpretive talks/tour programs and answers questions which require knowledge of a limited variety of facts, events, circumstances, personalities, and natural characteristics identified with the site.
- Records information on accidents/incidents. Collects/records information such as water quality, plant infestation, wildlife/fish populations, and erosion control. Drafts reports/documents, and maps for review. Reads weather instruments/records data.
Based on the current hiring freeze executive order and its predecessor, the full-time and seasonal park ranger positions at Raystown Lake never should have been frozen in the first place, as they are clearly intended to provide public safety.
When digging a little deeper into the issue, I discovered a March 28, 2025, memorandum from Defense Secretary Hegseth with the subject, “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration & Recapitalization Initiative.“ In this memo, Sec. Hegseth gives directives to a DoD undersecretary and military department heads to “realign the size of our civilian workforce and strategically restructure it to supercharge our American warfighters.”
https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Spotlight/2025/Guidance_For_Federal_Policies/Additional-OSD-Guidance-Initiating-the-Workforce-Acceleration-and-Recapitalization-Initiative.pdf
The Secretary of Defense memo was followed up on April 7, 2025, with another memo from Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg, giving more, “Guiding Principles for The Department of Defense Workforce Optimization.”
https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/08/2003685574/-1/-1/1/WORKFORCE-ACCELERATION-RECAPITALIZATION-INITIATIVE-ORGANIZATIONAL-REVIEW.PDF
This memo from Deputy Secretary Feinberg states, “Reorganization plans should be guided by the following principles designed to strip away bureaucracy, accelerate decision-making, and deliver maximum value to the warfighter.” The principles include mission readiness, consolidated functions, flattened hierarchies, speed over process, fiscal discipline, no vestiges of the past, and digital-first operations. One of the examples he gives on how these guiding principles are to be used in planning is, “All functions that are not inherently governmental (e.g., retail sales and recreation) should be prioritized for privatization.”
Regardless of what the future of USACE managed recreation facilities holds based on these memos and the plans that they yield, the federal government is not absolved from its responsibility to operate the facilities today. If the long or medium-term intent is to privatize recreation facilities within the DoD, then allowing them to remain closed lessens their value as commercial entities, making privatization more difficult.
The devaluing of the campgrounds at Raystown Lake by prolonged closure is not serving the American taxpayers by making them attractive for privatization, nor is it serving them by giving up the non-tax revenue the USACE should be collecting by having them open.
Furthermore, the delay in hiring the park rangers that provide public safety that would allow these facilities to open was neither called for by the President of the United States nor should it be accepted by our federal elected officials. Plus the intent of the commander in chief, as referenced per the Secretary of Interior order to national parks, is for federal campgrounds to remain fully “open and accessible” to visitors.
Sincerely,
Matt Price
Executive Director
Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau
