U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, defended a federal worker who was given notice of her planned firing after a TV interview in early October.

Pressley sent a letter on Thursday evening to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, saying that the agency retaliated against the federal worker’s free speech rights. She is demanding the woman’s job be reinstated.

“I am writing to urge you to immediately rescind the Notice of Proposed Removal (NOPR) sent to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee and my constituent, Ellen Mei,” Pressley’s letter states, adding that Mei appeared in a media interview “in her personal capacity.”

Pressley called Mei’s termination notice unlawful and retaliatory after Mei warned the public about the administration’s cuts to food benefits and staff layoffs in the early days of what became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The firing notice “came during Trump and Republicans’ government shutdown, in which they weaponized critical food security programs, refused to fund SNAP, and let families go hungry,” Pressley’s office said in a statement.

“Ms. Mei joined the USDA to serve her country and her fellow Americans who rely on the critical services of the Agency you are charged with leading and stewarding,” Pressley wrote in her letter to Rollins. “Like every public servant, she took an oath to serve this nation, protect and honor the Constitution, and dedicate her labor in pursuit of the USDA’s mission.”

The Department of Agriculture issued a statement to MassLive on Thursday evening: “During a lapse in appropriations, furloughed USDA employees are not authorized to perform any official duties, including speaking on behalf of the Department. The USDA does not comment on individual personnel matters.”

Mei, a 29-year-old employee with the Agriculture Department who is based in Boston, appeared on MSNBC on Oct. 2 and discussed the impacts of the shutdown on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The next day, the agency informed Mei that she was going to be fired for her appearance on MSNBC, according to Mei in a new interview on Thursday.

“On October 3rd, I got a notice from the agency saying that they wanted to fire me for my appearance on MSNBC,” Mei told MSNBC. “They said specifically that I was not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency and that I disclosed information that I was not authorized to disclose, and therefore, I was unfit for further federal service.”

During her four-minute interview in October, Mei said she and her co-workers are “anxious because we’re hearing about the risk potentials and office closures that are looming over USDA as this shutdown kind of drags on.”

She also explained how funding for SNAP would most likely be available in October, but that “things might get a little dicey if this drags on into November.”

Mei also granted interviews to The Boston Globe and GBH.

She defended her initial interview last month as representing her own views and those of her union members.

Mei said she is also the president of the National Treasury Employees Union’s Chapter 255, which represents employees at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service in the Northeast, according to an interview on MSNBC.

“I have a duty as a chapter president to represent the views of my coworkers, and I have a duty and a right to do so under the federal labor management statute,” Mei said.

Correspondence between Mei and the Agriculture Department states that the process to remove her from her position has begun, and that she will be let go 30 days after the shutdown ends, according to documentation obtained by The Washington Post.

She has 20 days from the day the government reopened to contest her dismissal, the Post reported. She plans to appear at a news conference on Friday in Boston with other union members to protest the agency’s decision.

President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill on Wednesday night, ending the record 43-day shutdown. State leaders across the country are working to get full SNAP benefits to millions of people, though it could take up to a week for some to receive the delayed aid, The Associated Press reported.