Featured January 2, 2025 Partnership wraps 2024, a year of new work to build a better government Back to Blog 2025 in review: The Partnership steps up to safeguard the civil service Date January 2, 2026 Authors Partnership for Public Service Tags Partnership Insights The nonpartisan, merit-based civil service is the backbone of our democracy, yet it faced a year of unprecedented threats in 2025. As mass layoffs, the wholesale decimation of federal agencies and efforts to politicize the federal workforce intensified, the Partnership for Public Service pivoted to meet the moment. Over the past year, we supported career civil servants while continuing to enable and empower the leadership and innovation necessary for a modern, effective government that serves all. Supporting civil servants in unprecedented times This year, we launched our FedSupport Hub, a vital resource that served thousands of public servants. Through our webinars and online resources, we provided essential information on employee rights, career assistance and navigating organizational change. To build community among former federal employees who share a commitment to public service excellence, we created the Federal Alumni Network and the Former Federal Employees Speakers Bureau. We also joined other advocacy groups and organizations to lead initiatives that support the civil service, including the Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Support Network. Finally, to capture federal employees’ voices and perspectives during a challenging year, we conducted the Public Service Viewpoint Survey. The survey is designed to fill the gap caused by the cancellation of the Office of Personnel Management’s legally mandated Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Helping the public understand the damage already done and the risks ahead Our new Federal Harms Tracker demonstrates the destructive consequences of the Trump administration’s severe and arbitrary cuts to the federal workforce and federal programming. One installment of this product, the Cost to Your Government tracker, contains an interactive timeline that shows recent civil service reductions, paired with stories of harm and risk. The companion Cost to Your Community tracker features a dynamic map that captures where and how the federal government’s footprint and impact are changing across states and congressional districts. On a more positive note, our 24th annual Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals® honored 23 individuals and teams selected from over 350 nominations across 65 federal agencies. In a critical year, the program highlighted the full breadth of our government’s impact and why we all benefit from a nonpartisan civil service. We also continued our polling and analysis of how the public views the federal government, and we launched Government for a New Era, a comprehensive reform initiative to make our federal institutions more effective, responsive and accountable to the American people. Building better leaders at all levels of government In 2025, we expanded our work to state and local governments, applying our experience in improving leadership and agency performance to organizations nationwide. With generous multiyear support from Google.org and Microsoft, we launched the AI Center for Government®, helping federal, state and local leaders better understand, use and deploy AI to deliver on their agency’s mission. As part of this work, we welcomed state and local cohorts into our AI Government Leadership Program® and other Public Service Leadership Institute® programs. We also launched a suite of eLearning courses for public servants at all levels. All told, our AI program trained over 300 state and local civil servants across more than 30 states in 2025. In addition, our Future Leaders in Public Service Internship Program continued placing early-career talent across government. In 2025, the program reached a significant milestone by placing 17 interns across 11 different agencies in Maryland’s government—the first time our interns served at the state level. Moving forward, we will continue to offer a better alternative to the ongoing campaign against our government, championing constructive solutions to help it work better, offering civil servants the support they need to thrive in a challenging environment and showing the public what is at stake during this moment of crisis. We invite you to learn more about our work by visiting our website and subscribing to our newsletter.
