Years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that most of them are devoted civil servants who are committed to civic duty without regard to partisan politics.
Congress faces yet another potential shutdown.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
As Democrat and Republican leaders negotiate a potential spending deal to fund the government, the partial shutdown of 2013 offers some clues about the economic impact should they fail.
A picture of Andrew Jackson hung in the Oval Office during Trump’s tenure.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
For decades, presidents routinely replaced large swaths of the government workforce, often requiring them to pay fees to political parties in exchange for their jobs.
A 1938 stamp honoring former President Woodrow Wilson, considered one of America’s most progressive presidents.
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The Trump administration may do well to make a friend of the federal bureaucracy it’s so intent on gutting, according to an expert who studies the role of civil servants in government.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order implementing a federal government hiring freeze.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The president manages more than 200 organizations that make up the federal government. A survey of 3,500 federal managers shows they struggle with recruiting and retaining skilled workers.
But one-quarter of federal executives say they want to leave…
Joshua Cogan, Partnership for Public Service
William R Kenan, Jr Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science; Co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions., Vanderbilt University