Government employees and civil servants have been encouraged by Democratic senators to act as whistleblowers against the Trump administration.
A Democratic Caucus letter sent by Senators Chuck Schumer and Gary Peters asks public servants to report “wrongdoing, abuse of power, and threats to public safety,” according to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the letter.The Democratic Caucus has also created an online whistleblowing form for employees to report government “Retaliation, Wasteful Spending, Fraud, Criminal Activity, and/or Other.”Newsweek has reached out to Peters and Schumer via email for comment.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer holds hands with Representative Maxine Waters in a gathering of congressional Democrats outside the Treasury Department on February 4.
Why It Matters
The Democrats, who were left without majority control of the House and Senate after November’s elections, have been criticized by some progressives for not doing enough to stop President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk from gutting federal agencies.
Given their lack of power in the legislative and executive branches, the Democrats and several nonprofits have brought dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration. These suits concern the president’s moves to end birthright citizenship, allow Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Treasury data, fire FBI employees and more.
Now, government employees are being asked to point out illegal activity that they witness. The Schumer and Peters letter comes as GOP Senator Chuck Grassley has asked government workers to become whistleblowers on “wrongdoing within federal agencies or misuse of public dollars.”
What To Know
Schumer and Peters have told federal employees, they are covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act, which is intended to ensure that federal employees are not subject to retaliation if they provide evidence of possible wrongdoing within the government.
The two senators said they will also be investigating the president’s administration through inquiries, oversight requests and hearings, the Post reported.
Democrats have expressed concern about Trump’s recent move to cut 2,200 workers from the United States Agency for International Development. Schumer said on X (formerly Twitter): “Trump and DOGE’s actions at USAID are illegal and dangerous for the country.”
The president has said he wants to cut the federal workforce by 10 percent as part of his efforts to minimize the federal budget.Don Moynihan, a professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, told NPR that the budget for the 2.4 million federal employees is about $350 billion out of an overall $6.5 trillion budget.
“Their salaries are “a tiny sliver of total government spending—just around 5 percent to 6 percent,” Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told NPR.
Demonstrators protest the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development outside the U.S. Capitol on February 5. Aaron Schwartz/Sipa via AP Images
A Reddit page for federal employees, r/govfire, has been flooded with concerns raised by these workers, with fears about a government shutdown, whistleblowing on illegal behavior and the future of their jobs.
Some federal employees spoke to The New York Times about their experiences since the start of the Trump administration. One said she had 24 hours to fill a prescription before being cut off from her health insurance. Another said she is experiencing stages of grief over the sudden loss of her job, which is working on HIV/AIDS treatment in sub-Saharan Africa.
What People Are Saying
The Senate Democratic Caucus letter, obtained by The Washington Post, reads: “As Senate Republicans refuse to fulfill their constitutional duty to provide a check on the Executive Branch, Senate Democrats remain steadfast in our commitment to uncovering the truth. We are prepared to issue demand letters, preserve public records, conduct public hearings, and pursue legal action where necessary.”
Senator Chuck Schumer wrote on X: “To our brave public servants: Your courage in stepping forward as whistleblowers to expose corruption and misconduct is essential to preserving the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
A government employee said on Reddit’s r/govfire: “If I refuse to comply with some blatantly illegal/unethical order in the coming months or years and am fired, is my pension at risk? Or is that supposedly safe even in cases of ‘conduct issues’? (I know this administration doesn’t care about laws, so who knows what they’ll do, but is there any precedent for punitively reducing someone’s pension?)”
What Happens Next
Vice President JD Vance has said he does not believe the judicial branch should have power over executive branch decisions, a view that raises the potential prospect of a constitutional crisis over reporting what is seen as illegal activity by the president.
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