COMMENTARY | One year in, DOGE and the Trump administration have had profound effects on the federal civil service, but looking at the numbers, it's not always where one expects.
Officials estimate that around 50,000 federal workers will be stripped of their civil service protections beginning in around a month, as unions, employee associations and good government groups decry their positions’ politicization.
The immigration enforcement agency said there was a “dramatic surge” in telework and remote work reasonable accommodation requests after President Donald Trump ended work from home flexibility for federal employees.
The Partnership for Public Service warned that, contrary to proponents’ claims, there is “no evidence” that at-will employment improves employee or agency performance.
At the White House’s request, the federal government’s dedicated HR agency has updated its proposal limiting how many employees agencies can rate as above average to narrow the methods by which federal workers can challenge a perceived unfair rating.
The nation’s largest federal employee union said key leaders involved in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and dissent “defamed” VA nurse Alex Pretti by erroneously describing him as a “domestic terrorist.”
Workers look to leadership for support, though so far it has pointed the finger at its political opponents after federal officers shot and killed a VA employee.
The government watchdog reported that the already beleaguered Social Security Administration is at risk of “losing many staff in the near term” as a result of the Trump administration’s push to excise the workplace flexibility from federal agencies.
The Trump administration contends unions can seek review of their ouster from most federal agencies on national security grounds before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, but labor groups say that analysis misconstrues a term of art in federal labor law.
The president claimed without evidence that all federal workers forced out during his first year back were now in “better” jobs in factories making double or triple their government salary.
The Homeland Security Department’s planned ouster of the American Federation of Government Employees from the Transportation Security Administration, scheduled to take effect Sunday, must now be halted.