Six Vicksburg National Military Park employees who were terminated as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) downsizing efforts made in February have been reinstated. Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (VCVB) Executive Director Laura Beth Strickland shared the news at the conclusion of Thursday’s regular VCVB meeting.

“We are very excited about this update,” Strickland said. “They’re all getting onboarded again and things should be close to normal operations again very soon. We’ve been helping a lot of visitors and filling the void and so that did affect some of our operations at the visitor center, but it’s all good news now that we’ve got all of those people back.”

Initially, seven employees were terminated and one took the early buyout plan offered by the federal government. Since then, another has found employment elsewhere.

Those returning to work include the fee collector, three full-time maintenance staff, the educational specialist and the archeologist, the latter of which  has been working as the lead in the National Cemetery project.

It was also announced that reinstated employees will be receiving back pay for time lost.

Across the country, thousands of federal workers who were fired as part of the DOGE cuts are returning to work after legal problems with how the Trump administration handled federal downsizing were found this month by two federal judges. According to the Associated Press, 16,000 probationary workers would be reinstated as a result of one California judge’s ruling alone.