Shining a Light on the Destruction of our Government

The Trump administration promised transparency, but on one of its most consequential priorities, it has gone to great lengths to obfuscate.

The first 200 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been filled with consequential policy matters such as the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, the trade war, immigration enforcement, and the passage of a major tax and spending bill along with frequent sideshows that have included everything from calls to annex Canada and Greenland to stripping comedian Rosie O’Donnell of her citizenship.

Amid the barrage of jaw-dropping headlines and endless distractions and provocations, Trump and his administration have undertaken the most radical transformation of our government and the federal workforce in over a century, effectively dismantling agencies, eliminating critical services and hampering government’s ability to serve the public.

Though these actions have generated headlines, there has been shockingly little reliable information on the scope of the workforce cuts or the ways those cuts will harm the public. The Trump administration came into office promising to be transparent, but on one of its most consequential and highly touted priorities, it has gone to great lengths to obfuscate.

Americans deserve to know what is happening to their government and how it will impact them. That’s why my organization, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, created the Federal Harms Tracker, a new initiative that will measure and report on reductions to the federal workforce, connect these actions to specific risks and harms for individuals and communities, and quantify the economic costs to the nation. We have published the first phase of this effort, cataloging the scope of the cuts to the federal workforce.

We found that, as of July, just under 149,000 civil servants have left the government, with tens of thousands more firings to come following the July 8 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the green light for the administration to move ahead with massive job cuts for now and the downsizing of numerous agencies.

Across the government, the largest workforce reductions since the beginning of the year have hit the departments of the Treasury (31,201), Defense (20,364), Agriculture (21,600), and Health and Human Services (13,448). Other significant job losses have taken place at the departments of Interior (6,250), Energy (4,972), and Homeland Security (2,344), along with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (9,985), the Voice of America (659) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (1,544).

The data show that the administration initially relied on the deferred resignation program that so far has affected about 75,000 civil servants and probationary period firings that impacted 25,000 employees. Arbitrary terminations, some of which were imposed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, circumvented established procedures and resulted in the rehiring of terminated employees engaged in critical work or court decisions placing the firings on hold.

Gathering this data has not been as simple as totaling the numbers in a spreadsheet. To get a reliable sense of the scale, our researchers have been combing through agency documents and news reports for data on job reductions across government, and then aggregating that data to get accurate counts for agencies and their subcomponents, all in a rapidly changing environment.

As jarring as the numbers are, ultimately this isn’t a story about numbers. It’s a story about people. And not just federal employees whose livelihoods have been disrupted, but people all over the country who will be tangibly harmed by this pointless diminishment of our government.

At the weakened CFPB, which is charged with protecting consumers from wrongdoing by banks and financial service companies, the remaining members of the depleted staff are busy rescinding rules designed to prevent fraud and withdrawing major enforcement actions. In effect, the administration is unilaterally decommissioning an agency it does not want.

Colleges and universities have sent up distress signals warning that the Department of Education, which is on the chopping block along and saw an additional 1,400 employee layoffs last week, has been slow in processing student loans. Senior citizens are encountering roadblocks in their dealings with the Social Security Administration because of staff cutbacks.

The National Cancer Institute has been beset by upheaval, with the firings and departures of clinicians, scientists, and other staffers along with the termination of funding for life-saving research. Staffing reductions at the Small Business Administration have been making it harder for entrepreneurs to get access to capital, contracts, and technical assistance.

There also is fear that cutbacks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration will endanger public health, and there is deep concern that the loss of staff combined with administration-imposed bottlenecks at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Weather Service will threaten timely warnings and responses to natural disasters.

It is as if we are on a pitch-black battlefield with enormous carnage that is growing by the day, and we have only little pen lights to gather information about the cutbacks and the consequences. At this critical moment, we need a floodlight showing the American people what is happening to their government and critical public services--and why it matters.

Max Stier is the founding president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization focused on building a better government and a stronger democracy.

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