Cnn
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The presidential library and John F. Kennedy Museum in Boston was forced to close on Tuesday due to the “sudden rejection of federal employees,” the library foundation said in a statement in CNN.
“As a foundation that supports the JFK library, we are devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the library,” added the foundation.
A panel on the doors of the library reads a familiar source with the case told CNN that the staff of the library who interacted with the public and the collection of funds had been released in accordance with the efforts of the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal government.
The closure occurred a few days after the government has expanded its efforts to reduce federal workers, instructing agencies on a call to move forward with the layoffs of probation workers. President Donald Trump also signed an executive decree last week, ordering federal agency leaders to “undertake preparations to initiate large -scale reductions in force”.
While the library has confirmed that it had been “temporarily closed until further notice”, the national archives, which oversee the presidential library system, said the library on Tuesday would run on Wednesday.
The national archives did not answer other questions on the reduction of library staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Kennedy family members called for the library closed on Tuesday afternoon. Former representative Joe Kennedy III, a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, told CNN affiliated WBZ that the closure was due to federal job cuts, adding that “when we start to stop libraries in the name of Government efficiency, we have a problem. “”
“I would like to think that it was not a deliberate target at the Kennedy library, but I think what we have seen is that there is not exactly a lot of reflection on the consequences of these actions” , he said.
Jack Schlossberg, a grandson by John F. Kennedy, criticized the closure, saying in an Instagram post that “it has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the government”.
The library is one of the 16s that make up the presidential library system and receives annual federal funding for maintenance and “part of its personnel costs”, according to its website.
Kerry Rubin of CNN contributed to this report.
