What do federal employees talk about around the proverbial watercooler? As it turns out, the overwhelming answer is: liberal politics. And that has ramifications for all Americans.
The ideal of a nonpartisan federal workforce is foundational to U.S. government operations and the law of the land for more than 140 years. Most federal employees are career staff hired on a nonpartisan basis, retaining their positions across administrations to gain experience and expertise. In return, they set aside personal politics and impartially implement elected officials’ policies, no matter their personal preferences.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. But past and new research indicates a significant partisan lean within the civil service.
Prior investigations into voter registration and campaign finance data show career federal employees are predominantly liberal. This new study backs those findings and demonstrates that career employees who share their personal political views at work overwhelmingly express liberal views.
The America First Policy Institute submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to multiple agencies, seeking official e-mails sent by senior career employees containing politically relevant keywords during and after the 2020 presidential election. These requests revealed numerous “watercooler” conversations where employees openly expressed personal political views.
Among career employees who shared personal political reviews in these e-mails, 95 percent expressed liberal views. With only a few exceptions, career employees voiced opposition to President Trump and his policies and support for President Biden and his policies. They also expressed strong views on agency policy, almost exclusively preferring liberal policies in discussions about agency decisions.
Take, for example, reactions to the 2020 election. Numerous career employees rejoiced at the defeat of President Trump. One Interior Department employee candidly remarked, “It feels like I can breathe again,” while a career employee in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressed their “relief to know the orange guy is gone.”
A career attorney in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) described his plans to a colleague to “crack open some champagne at lunch to celebrate Joe Biden’s inauguration!” Multiple EPA employees also expressed their joy at removing pictures of President Trump and Vice President Pence from the agency buildings following President Biden’s inauguration.
Reactions to agency policy were similarly biased. Career employees across multiple federal agencies expressed opposition to both Schedule F, which would make employees with influence over agency policy functionally at-will, and to President Trump’s executive order prohibiting agencies from training employees to embrace critical race theory. Career EPA officials celebrated President Biden’s newly issued climate directives and condemned the Trump administration’s approach to environmental policy.
Perhaps most concerning: Some career employees see themselves as long-term shapers of public policy. Career attorneys in the EEOC’s General Counsel’s office expressly described themselves as being “part of a movement” that needs “to play the long game” while expressing hope President Biden would rapidly appoint more liberal judges.
Another career attorney in the EEOC general counsel’s office described the career deputy general counsel as the official who was actually “at the helm” during the Trump administration, while other career attorneys mocked a Trump-appointed federal appeals judge.
Notably, only five out of 120 employees expressed conservative views in these e-mail exchanges. One of those employees was anti-Trump and two EEOC employees, classified as conservative, simply offered condolences to a Trump appointee that was terminated by President Biden.
This sample doesn’t mean 95 percent of career employees are liberals, as many did not engage in political discussions at all. However, it does highlight that those with moderate or conservative views rarely feel comfortable expressing them at work. The career federal workforce appears so dominated by liberals that employees with differing perspectives feel compelled to self-censor.
Against this backdrop, it’s understandable why new Republican administrations rush to fill roles with political appointees and pursue Schedule F reforms. They feel – and the data backs them up – that the civil service is a hostile battlefield for their policy objectives. That’s bad for a new administration, but it’s also bad for the tens of millions of people who voted that administration into office.
Both we and the administration deserve better. To restore the appearance and reality of nonpartisanship in the career civil service, the government must reinforce neutrality, impartiality and clarity that the civil service serves the administration and the people.
Jacob Sagert is a policy analyst in the Center for American Freedom at the America First Policy Institute.