“Federal income tax in the United States officially started in 1913 with the ratification of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.” We dont want to make this political, and we won’t. I’m pointing out that even though most people i know work for the government, there are justifications for what is being done. I also want to point out this is a very valuable post thee OP made because i think an overreaction is also very bad. We dont want to throw out the valuable baby with the dirty bathwater. Scions have been hard for many to get though their tax dollars funded the research. We will find a little pity from them. Those of us with farms and doing research had access to scions once a year. I would love to see a more open scion program come from this. Corvalis has been a valuable resource to the public. If i were in their shoes i would open scions to all the public. The public would rally on their side if a problem came up. As a state government employee myself i can tell you the public is my boss. I wished everyone realized that. My prayers are with the op and their family who will likely be working soon in the private sector. This is the problem with a single point of failure. We will write to our state officials to try to convert the agency to a state facility if we know the details. The feds will cut resources there is no changing that.