1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

I am writing to ask you a very simple question: Why aren’t you standing up to Russell Vought and this administration as they continue to dismantle federal agencies, destroy institutional expertise, and traumatize the federal employees who have devoted their careers to serving this country? A recent Government Executive report details yet another alarming example of this administration’s destruction of the federal government. All 13 principal federal statistical agencies have experienced staffing cuts since the beginning of the Trump administration. Six have lost at least one third of their workforce, while two have lost more than two thirds of their employees. The consequences are already being felt through delayed, reduced, suspended, or canceled data programs. These are not meaningless numbers on a spreadsheet. These are experienced federal employees being pushed out, institutional knowledge being destroyed, agencies being left without permanent leadership, and critical government functions being weakened. The Bureau of Labor Statistics alone has lost 20 percent of its workforce between fiscal years 2024 and 2026, while roughly a third of its leadership positions remain vacant. The National Center for Education Statistics was reduced from approximately 100 employees to just four before partially rebuilding to roughly a dozen. The Economic Research Service has lost a third of its workforce since fiscal year 2024. And this is happening while federal employees are being subjected to an extraordinary level of uncertainty, fear, disruption, and instability. At what point is enough enough? Where are you? Where is your voice? Where is your willingness to challenge Russell Vought and this administration when they systematically weaken the agencies Americans depend upon? If you care about the constituents you represent, then you should be standing up for the federal workforce and for the institutions that protect the American public, not standing silently by while they are dismantled. Federal employees are not disposable. They are not political pawns. They are the people who keep our government functioning every single day. They collect and analyze the data businesses rely on, administer benefits, protect consumers, enforce laws, respond to emergencies, serve veterans, support families, and perform countless other essential functions that most Americans never have to think about. When you eliminate experienced employees, leave leadership positions vacant, slash staffing, and hollow out agencies, you do not simply reduce government. You destroy expertise that can take decades to rebuild. And when employees are continually subjected to layoffs, reorganizations, forced relocations, threats to their jobs, attacks on their collective bargaining rights, and an atmosphere of constant uncertainty, there are real human consequences. These are people with families, mortgages, bills, and lives. They deserve better than to be treated as collateral damage in an ideological campaign to dismantle the federal government. I am asking you directly: Why are you not publicly and forcefully opposing this? Why aren’t you demanding congressional oversight? Why aren’t you demanding accountability from Russell Vought and the officials responsible for these decisions? Why aren’t you fighting to protect the federal employees who are being asked to continue doing more with fewer people and fewer resources? And why aren’t you using your position in Congress to defend the agencies that your constituents depend upon? It should not take another catastrophic failure before Congress recognizes what is happening. The warnings are already here. Experts are already sounding the alarm. Federal employees are already being traumatized. Critical programs are already being reduced or eliminated. The government’s institutional capacity is already being damaged. Your constituents deserve to know where you stand. If you truly care about the people you represent, then stand up. Stand up for federal employees. Stand up for competent, functioning government. Stand up for independent and reliable federal data. Stand up for the agencies that Americans rely upon. And most importantly, stand up to Russell Vought and this administration when they are wrong. Silence is not leadership. Looking the other way is not leadership. Waiting until the damage is irreversible is not leadership. Your constituents need you to fight for them now, not after the damage has already been done. I expect you to take this crisis seriously and to use your position in Congress to demand accountability, protect the federal workforce, and stop the continued dismantling of our federal government.