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The Required Federal Employee Survey Vanished the Year 317,000 Feds Left. Congress Wants Answers.

civil service federal employee survey federal workforce fevs opm Jun 24, 2026

In 2025, roughly 317,000 employees left the federal government. The federal workforce shrank by more than ten percent. And the one survey the government is legally required to run every year — the survey specifically designed to measure federal employee morale — was cancelled.

That is not a coincidence. And twenty-three members of Congress are now demanding that the Office of Personnel Management explain what happened to the 2026 version.

What the Law Actually Requires

This is worth being precise about, because OPM's omission is not a policy preference — it is a legal deviation.

The 2004 National Defense Authorization Act requires an annual employee survey. The regulation that implements it — 5 C.F.R. Part 250 — specifies sixteen questions that every agency must ask. This is the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and it is mandatory.

In 2025, OPM Director Scott Kupor cancelled the survey, citing "transformation." In connection with that cancellation, OPM stripped questions related to diversity and inclusion to align with anti-DEI executive orders and pulled most demographic information out of FedScope, the agency's public workforce database.

As a replacement, OPM has pointed to "pulse surveys" — shorter, more frequent check-ins. The problem is that those pulse surveys do not publish the questions they ask, and they do not release the underlying data. The accountability mechanism that the FEVS was designed to create simply does not exist in the replacement.

The Congressional Response

In a letter led by Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative James Walkinshaw, twenty-three members of Congress cited OPM's own numbers — approximately 317,000 federal employees left the government in 2025, the same year the morale survey was cancelled — and demanded that OPM release the planned 2026 survey questions, the implementation timeline, and the underlying data from whatever pulse surveys were run.

The lawmakers are not wrong to press. When the workforce shrinks by more than ten percent in a single year, the morale data from that year is not optional context. It is essential accountability.

What I Want Federal Employees to Hear

I want to be honest with you about what the law can and cannot do here. No individual federal employee has a direct legal claim to force OPM to run the FEVS. There is no private right of action for a missing survey. That is the straightforward legal reality.

But a lawsuit is not the only form of accountability. Congressional oversight is real, and the twenty-three lawmakers who signed that letter understand this is not a minor procedural issue.

If your agency ran pulse surveys this past year and never showed you the results — or the questions — you are not imagining the gap between what was promised and what was delivered.

What You Can Do

If you want Congress to have a straight answer on this, there is a quick way to make your voice heard. Text the word RESIST to 50409. Resistbot will find your senators and your House member and turn your message into a letter it delivers on your behalf. Ask them to require OPM to release the 2026 survey questions, the implementation timeline, and the underlying data. It takes about two minutes.

And if you want to stay current on what is happening to the federal workforce — the legal developments, the policy changes, and what they mean for people who do this work — our free newsletter covers exactly that. You can sign up at free newsletter.

This post is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. If you have questions about your specific employment situation, please consult a qualified federal employment attorney.

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