By sticking around through presidential administrations, career staff gain deep expertise that is simply impossible to pick up in a shorter period of time. Image: Images by Dr. Alan Lipkin/Shutterstock.com
By: Robin ThurstonAs a former career civil servant, I know first-hand the value that career staff bring to the federal government – and to people and communities across the U.S. That’s why I also know that the threats anti-democratic legal actors are making to shrink the size and responsibilities of career staff would devastate the countless programs and services the civil service carries out on behalf of the public.
I was inspired to join the civil service after seeing how the Department of Justice brings civil rights laws to life by doggedly enforcing them. Civil servants are nonpartisan experts who have responsibilities not just to the President but the Constitution; the law; the people; and the other elected branch of government, Congress, too. All told America’s nearly 3 million civil servants ensure the laws, programs, and services that improve our communities and our country run. I hoped to play a small part in that.
After law school and a brief stint in the private sector, I joined the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and eventually the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a lawyer, spending seven years in the civil service. While at the FTC I contributed to efforts that recovered millions of dollars for people who were having trouble keeping up with their mortgages and were taken advantage of by predatory companies posing as the federal government. After car dealerships around the country ran deceptive ads concealing fees and other costs, I was part of a team that helped curtail the practice. I also helped obtain over $88 million in refunds for the 2.7 million AT&T customers who had extra charges added to their bills without their knowledge or consent. And alongside other career civil servants at the DOJ, I made sure Southwest Airlines followed the important safety regulations the Federal Aviation Authority creates to ensure our safety whenever we board a flight.
Whether I was protecting airline passengers or mortgage holders, the career civil servants I worked with were uniformly diligent, hardworking, and committed to serving the mission of their agencies. My time in government showed me that career civil servants are the lifeblood of our federal government. Without them, the programs and services we provide – the operation of our national parks, post offices, public schools, veterans’ benefits, and social security, to name just a few – would break down. Unlike political appointees who switch over with every new presidential administration, career staff accumulate and preserve institutional knowledge, ensuring that lessons learned during one presidential administration can be put to use in the next. And by sticking around through presidential administrations, career staff gain deep expertise that is simply impossible to pick up in a shorter period of time. In other words: political appointees and career staff both play important roles in our government.
Despite the importance of career staff to the working of our country (or perhaps because of it), the far-right legal movement has made it clear: it wants to dismantle and undermine the federal civil service’s ability to serve people. By hollowing out the size and responsibilities of career staff, the far right can concentrate power in the hands of a sympathetic president and political allies – smoothing the path to implementing extreme policies. The fact that eliminating experienced experts will also impair federal agencies’ abilities to serve the American people is a feature, not a bug of this radical movement. The far right wants a less effective, less robust federal government: any resulting breakdown in public confidence in government functioning serves its purposes.
Some might say this is alarmist. But these threats are unfortunately all too real: Just take a look at far right actors’ detailed and developed plans to undermine the civil service come 2025, should a similarly-minded president take office. More than 50 far-right organizations have already come together under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation to form Project 2025, a coalition to enact extreme policies on the federal level if they succeed in putting an ally in the oval office. “For conservatives to have a fighting chance to take on the administrative state and reform our federal government,” Project 2025’s report reads, “the work must start now.” Here’s a snippet of what Project 2025’s report advocates: immediately implementing an unnecessary hiring freeze to box out ideologically-opposed applicants; transferring large swaths of authority from career staff to political appointees; making it easier to terminate federal employees by shortening the disciplinary process and limiting appeals to termination decisions; and more. Project 2025 has also begun pre-screening ideologically-aligned workers to replace the career civil servants an anti-democratic administration would purge.
The Trump administration tried many similar tactics during its term in office. Far-right extremists have learned from the mistakes of the Trump administration and are prepared to hit the ground running to hollow out career staff on day one of a new, anti-democratic administration. (As Project 2025 describes itself: “The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025.”)
Far-right extremists are taking the gutting of the career civil service seriously – so the rest of us should too. As a former career civil servant myself, I know that career staff are the engine propelling the project of American government forward in service of our communities. And I’m concerned about organizations like Project 2025 that are making very real threats to it. But I’m also hopeful. I’m hopeful because if my time in government taught me anything, it’s the power of one person to make a difference. While in the civil service I heard about one federal worker who was almost single-handedly responsible for making a policy change that led to countless more people getting access to nutritious, plentiful meals.
The good news is we have a lot of people on our side. Far-right extremists who want to undermine government workers do not represent the majority of people in the U.S. Across the country, nearly two-thirds of the public support civil servants. And late last year, a coalition of 26 varied organizations (plus my current organization, Democracy Forward) came together in a message supporting the civil service. There is reason for hope.
But as the 2024 election draws closer, everyone – civil servants and members of the public alike – must pay attention to how anti-democracy forces are trying to whittle away the civil service from the inside out. As current and former federal employees, we know the value and expertise career staff bring to the table. It’s time to dedicate ourselves to protecting career staff the way career civil servants have dedicated their professional lives to serving the public.
Robin Thurston is Legal Director at Democracy Forward. She has represented local governments, unions, and non-profit organizations in litigating against government misconduct and anti-democratic policies. She has also led Democracy Forward’s regulatory advocacy work, and has served as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice, and enforced consumer protection laws at the Federal Trade Commission. She holds a J.D., from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Stanford University.
*The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by FEDweek.
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