Elections and Government Reform

Federal workforce and job protections

17 public statements from 2026 candidates · 1 related bill

§1The range of views

Why this matters: Federal workers run programs from veterans' care to national parks to food inspections, so their numbers and job protections affect services and how much control each president has over career staff.

Drafted by AI, then checked for neutral wording in a separate AI review. It describes the question and the main positions, not any candidate's view. Facts link to their sources.

How many people the federal government employs and how easily they can be fired, after a 2025 executive order directed agencies to prepare large-scale layoffs and a 2026 rule made some policy-related career jobs at-will.1,2

  1. Cut the federal workforce further and make more federal jobs easier to fire
  2. Keep the workforce near its current size, with current job protections
  3. Rehire for jobs cut since 2025 and restore job protections, such as by undoing the 2026 at-will rule

These options describe policies, not people. The order is not a ranking.

§2What candidates have said

Why this matters: Statements candidates made publicly, summarized in plain words with a link to where they said it. Candidates who haven't spoken publicly on this issue aren't listed.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Cut the federal workforce further and make more federal jobs easier to fire (1)

  • Lauren Boebert CO-4
    Her campaign's Contract with Colorado says a federal bureaucracy of more than 2 million employees who earn more than private-sector workers is not what the nation's founders envisioned, and calls for capping federal civilian pay and benefits at private-sector levels and giving the president more power to fire executive branch employees who do not carry out his policies.3

Rehire for jobs cut since 2025 and restore job protections, such as by undoing the 2026 at-will rule (2)

  • Ro Khanna CA-17
    His campaign website says he would repeal the executive order that allowed Schedule F, put in place civil service protections that allow firing only for just cause, and rebuild agencies that lost staff.4
  • Mike Sell FL-4
    His campaign's platform supports the Saving the Civil Service Act, which it says would block the reclassification that strips career civil servants of job protections, calls for restoring staff cut at agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the Education Department, and would require a 60-day congressional review before any agency lays off more than 100 workers, with reinstatement and back pay for workers laid off in violation of the rules.5,6

Statements that don't match one option (14)

  • Melissa Hernandez CA-14
    Her campaign website says she supports legislation reversing staff cuts at the EPA and the Department of Transportation.7
  • Derek Tran CA-45
    His campaign website says he introduced legislation to protect veterans' jobs and require that veterans affected by President Trump's federal layoffs be reinstated.8
  • Henry "Hank" Johnson, Jr. GA-4
    His campaign website says he opposes the Trump administration’s mass firing of federal employees.9
  • La Shawn K. Ford IL-7
    His campaign website says he will fight for a permanent ban on Schedule F-style classifications and work to strengthen protections for whistleblowers, inspectors general and federal scientists.10
  • William Eric Henry IN-2
    His campaign website lists reducing federal agency budgets and personnel among his issues.11
  • Rudy Yakym IN-2
    His campaign website lists shrinking the federal bureaucracy among the issues he is fighting for.12
  • Lauren Reinhold KS-1
    Her campaign website says she would lock merit-system protections for career federal positions into law so that reclassifying positions, such as under Schedule F, would require an act of Congress.13
  • Julia Letlow LA Senate
    Her campaign website says she would reduce the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy and strengthen oversight of federal regulators.14
  • Sarah Elfreth MD-3
    Her campaign website says she has introduced or cosponsored dozens of bills meant to shield civil servants, and that the first bill she introduced in Congress was a bipartisan measure to protect the civil service from DOGE.15
  • Glenn F. Ivey MD-4
    His campaign website says he is fighting Trump administration actions against federal workers, which it calls unlawful, in the courts and in Congress.16
  • Adrian Boafo MD-5
    His campaign website says he would shield federal employees from political retaliation and defend merit-based hiring and the civil service against efforts to weaken them.17
  • Christina Bertrand Hines MI-10
    Her health care topic page says she wants to roll back the Trump administration's DOGE firings, which it says stop the FDA from safety-testing drugs and infant formula.18
  • Sam Forstag MT-1
    His campaign website says he would fully staff public lands agencies, and says that as vice president of his union's local he organized against cuts to the Forest Service and other public land agencies. It also lists letting federal agencies hire directly where appropriate and changing the federal hiring process.19,20
  • Winston Jordan NJ-12
    His policy platform website lists civil service protections to defend the government workforce.21

§3Related bills

Why this matters: Bills from 2023–2026 that bear on this issue, with how Congress handled them.