JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
On this Labor Day, we're looking at the largest employer in the country, the federal government. President Trump came into office vowing to shrink the government and make it more efficient. So far, it's clear he's achieved part of that. The government is smaller, but whether it's working better remains up for debate. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Since January, the Trump administration has moved with stunning speed to shrink the federal workforce, firing tens of thousands of employees, offering buyouts to nearly everyone else, suggesting they could be more productive elsewhere. Here was President Trump at a cabinet meeting last week.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We've reduced the number of federal bureaucrats by 84,000.
HSU: And many more will be off the payroll very soon. The Office of Personnel Management reports the government is on track to shed about 300,000 employees this year - about 1 in 8 federal workers out by the end of December, most of them voluntary. OPM's director, Scott Kupor, told CNBC there's a lot of opportunity in this moment.
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SCOTT KUPOR: We've got great people. It's just a question of the system they're working in just doesn't reward efficiency. It rewards more headcount, more spending. Things only go in one direction here in Washington, and part of the challenge we have is we've got to change that.
HSU: But Anthony Lee says the way the Trump administration is going about this is wrong. He says they're driving good people out. Lee's worked at the Food and Drug Administration for more than two decades and leads the union representing FDA employees across the mid-Atlantic. He says the government is losing chemists, toxicologists, engineers, people who make sure drugs and medical devices are safe and effective, who make sure food ingredients aren't poisonous.
ANTHONY LEE: It is already, in my view, harming the public because we're losing that institutional knowledge. And as much as the current administration thinks everyone is just quickly replaceable, they're not.
HSU: Lee says morale is down for those who remain. Employees have lost colleagues to mass layoffs. They're being stripped of their collective bargaining rights, and Trump demanded everyone work from the office full-time, even those hired during the pandemic who don't live close to an office.
LEE: Although they came to the federal government because of their passion for public service, they also came because of the flexibility of the government. Those flexibilities are just being wiped away.
HSU: With 300,000 workers soon gone, the Office of Personnel Management told NPR it does not expect additional RIFs - reductions in force - for now. But fear still permeates many workplaces.
JULIE: I fear that I can be RIF because of my tenure.
HSU: This is Julie, who's worked in a lab at a VA hospital in Southern California for about two decades. NPR agreed to use only her middle name because she fears reprisal from the VA for speaking out. Julie comes from a military family and is proud of the time she's spent at the VA.
JULIE: In a way, I feel like I have fulfilled what my parents wanted me to do by serving the veterans.
HSU: She finds the work meaningful. She likes playing a role in diagnosing and treating veterans' illnesses. Like so many federal workers, she thought she'd retire from this job, and she still hopes to.
JULIE: I mean, I never thought of going anywhere else. I was just - I was happy. I'm happy with my work.
HSU: But her sense of stability has been shattered. Raymond Limon says he never saw this kind of upheaval in his three decades in government. He retired in February. As an employment attorney and a human resources leader, Limon spent most of his career ensuring that the federal government has the right people in place.
RAYMOND LIMON: You know, the federal employee - they take an oath of office, and their loyalty or their fidelity is to the entire American people.
HSU: But now, he says, that's under threat. Limon worries that Trump is politicizing the civil service by firing people whose work he finds objectionable - Justice Department attorneys involved in January 6 prosecutions, Limon's former colleague on the board that reviews federal workers personnel matters like wrongful terminations, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a not-so-great jobs report, even inspectors general who are tasked with doing exactly what Trump says he wants done - rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
LIMON: Authoritarianism 101, you know, is No. 1, go after the watchdogs.
HSU: And without watchdogs, Limon wonders, how will Americans - all Americans - be able to trust that their government is not just smaller but that it's working for them? Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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