New congressional caucus seeks to defend the federal workforce at critical juncture

Guest:	Rep. James Walkinshaw
Title:	Congressional representative, Virginia's 11th Congressional District
Summary:	After a year of deep disruptions to the career civil service, lawmakers have created a bicameral caucus to defend federal workers and modernize the systems they rely on. Its goals range from protecting nonpartisan public service to improving pay, retention, and professional development. One of the leaders behind the effort is Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia.

The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton provides expert insights on current events in the federal community. Read more interviews to keep up with daily news and analysis that affect the federal workforce. Reach out to Terry and the Federal Drive producers with feedback and story ideas at FederalDrive@federalnewsnetwork.com.

Interview transcript:

Terry Gerton You’ve really jumped right in as a vocal advocate for the federal workforce. This important group of people have certainly been in the news over the last year, but we’ve never had a federal workforce caucus in Congress before. Why do you think we never had that kind of concentrated advocacy?

        Defense leaders from DLA and the Navy share how real-time visibility, data at the edge and modern tech are closing readiness gaps and reshaping military supply chains in our new ebook, sponsored by Zebra Technologies.

James Walkinshaw There have been for many years members of Congress, especially those in the D.C. region but not exclusively the D.C. region, who have worked together to advocate for federal workers. Congressman Connolly was one of those for many years. Congressman Steny Hoyer from Maryland, who’s my partner in launching the caucus, has done that for many years. But for whatever reason, there was never a formal caucus formed. I was a little bit surprised when I thought of the idea. I said to myself — somebody must have done this at some point; but it turns out, no. So I’m happy that we have it kicked off and moving forward.

Terry Gerton Was there a particular tipping point that convinced you and your colleagues that it was time to formalize the caucus structure?

James Walkinshaw I think this entire Trump term has been one big tipping point. The targeted attacks on federal workers and federal worker rights I think have highlighted this issue for folks not just in our region, but across the country, and highlighted for me the need for there to be, moving forward, a coordinated group with mechanisms to speak out and stand up in Congress when new assaults on federal workers and their rights come from this administration or any future administration.

Terry Gerton The initial membership of the caucus draws heavily from the congressional delegations for Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. You do have some outside geographical representation. How did you decide, or how did you get members who represent other concentrations of federal employees outside the D.C. area?

James Walkinshaw First, everyone who meets the caucus’s criteria will be eligible to join. We have a handful of endorsed bills and folks who sign on as co-sponsors to two or more of those bills will be eligible to join, whether they’re in the D.C. region, across the country, Democrats, Republicans. We kicked off the caucus with the co-chairs, myself and Steny Hoyer and Sen. Chris Van Hollen in the Senate, but we are already, every day, adding new members from across the country.

Terry Gerton One of the things we’ve seen as a result of the drawdowns of the federal workforce over the past year, it used to be the 80-20 rule, around about 20% of feds worked in D.C., 80% across the country. That across-the country-number’s up to 86% now. So does that change how you want to make sure that you get a broader representation of folks?

James Walkinshaw Well, I think it’s always been important for us to remind members of Congress that most federal workers work outside of the D.C. region. They’re in federal parks across the country, they’re at VA clinics and hospitals across the country, and Social Security offices across the country and that’s always has been the case. You’re right, it’s even more the case now, with some of the relocations of federal agencies outside of the D.C. region. So we’re going to continue to highlight that while also emphasizing the operational efficiencies that come from having especially agency headquarters here in the D.C. region. You know, we’ve seen from the Trump administration, especially in the first term, and again now these efforts to relocate headquarters outside of the D.C. region. It ends up costing the taxpayers a lot of money because folks are constantly flying back and forth between that headquarters and Washington, D.C., to meet with other agencies or members of Congress or folks in the White House. It makes sense to have leadership here in Washington, D.C., so people can collaborate and communicate in person.

        Sign up for our daily newsletter so you never miss a beat on all things federal

Terry Gerton Talked a little bit about geographical representation. What about party balance? It seems like most of the folks who originally signed up are Democrats. Are you getting much interest from your Republican colleagues?

James Walkinshaw I’ll just state the obvious reality — right now in Congress, there aren’t as many Republican champions for federal workers as there were in the past. We know here in the D.C. region in the pass, we’ve had Republicans like Tom Davis and Frank Wolf and Connie Morella, who bucked their own party to defend the rights of federal workers. There are fewer of those Republican voices now in Congress. But there are, at least in the House, a handful of Republicans who, on some key issues, have taken some tough stands and tough votes and supported, for example, restoring collective bargaining rights to federal workers. And those folks are eligible to join the caucus, and we do have a number of them who will be joining the caucus. So it will be bicameral, House and Senate, and bipartisan. I do suspect there will end up being more Democrats than Republicans. But one of my goals over time is to help build out and create a space for those Republicans who recognize the value of the federal workforce and delivering services to their constituents to come along with us and be more active on those issues.

Terry Gerton Congressman Walkinshaw represents Virginia’s 11th Congressional District. So let’s move from membership to agenda. What is at the top of the list of things that you want to accomplish?

James Walkinshaw Number one is to be a bulwark against the attacks on the rights of federal workers that we’ve seen. Over the course of this Trump administration, we have seen mass layoffs and firings. We’ve seen entire agencies, offices and departments downsize, dismantled, shut down effectively. We’ve seen an effort during the last shutdown to illegally fire 4,000 federal workers. We’ve seen whistleblower protections degraded, civil service protections degraded. Right now, the administration is moving forward with the Schedule P/C, Schedule Policy/Career, formerly known as Schedule F, which will allow for the politicization of as many as 50,000 civil service positions. So job number one for us will be to be a bulwark against those assaults that hurt federal workers, but just as importantly, hurt federal agencies’ ability to deliver for the American people. That’s job number one. Job number two, moving forward over the medium and long term, is to help think through and establish an agenda to rebuild from the damage that’s been done, but do it in a way that acknowledges, look, even before President Trump was sworn into office this time, there were things in the federal government that weren’t working as well as they could have. So how do we rebuild in a way that delivers more effective and efficient services for the American people? That’s what we’re going to be working on.

Terry Gerton I know there will be a lot of good government groups happy to hear that message and you probably already have many who are working with you and submitting their wish lists. What does action look like at this point? Are you thinking about coordinated legislation? Are you think about oversight hearings, other kinds of partnerships and agreements?

James Walkinshaw Well, I mentioned we have endorsed legislation already, so we’ll be encouraging all 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate to sign on to that endorsed legislation. We’ll have a coordinated caucus response on the Schedule P/C initiative from the administration. We’re hoping to have our first formal meeting of the caucus here within the next month where we can sit down with the leaders of associations and organizations and unions representing federal workers to understand what they’re facing in this moment and how we as a caucus can best help to address it.

Terry Gerton And as you look forward, what will you be taking as your measures of success? What do you want the current federal workforce to know and watch for? And what will be tracking?

James Walkinshaw Well, I want the current federal workforce to know that there now exists a group of members of Congress who are committed to protecting our nonpartisan civil service and protecting their rights. And I think a measure of success will be just that. Do we, in this critical moment, help to preserve an institution — a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service that has served the American people well? Doesn’t mean there aren’t improvements that can be made in it, but it is a much better system than the alternative. And we have had that alternative in this country before, a spoils-based patronage system where new administrations fill federal agencies with cronies and political hacks who either can’t or don’t care enough to get the actual job done on behalf of the American people. So I think long-term, that will be our measure of success. Do we preserve the nonpartisan, merit-based civil service? And do we help craft a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service that’s even more effective and efficient for the American people moving forward?

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.