Federal employee advocates see midterm results as opportunity to challenge workforce overhauls

With the upcoming power shift in Congress, federal unions and advocates see an opening to push for a federal pay raise and restore collective bargaining.

After Democrats won the majority in both chambers of Congress, federal employee advocates are eyeing fresh opportunities to challenge the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the federal workforce.

The American Federation of Government Employees viewed the election results as a window to push back harder against the administration’s broad cancellations of collective bargaining agreements across government.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley on Wednesday called for the passage of Protect America’s Workforce Act, which would overturn two executive orders that sought to end union contracts for most federal employees. The bill cleared the House last December but has not seen any movement on the Senate side.

“Our nation’s civil servants work with dignity and honor to serve the American public, and stripping them of fundamental workplace rights and protections was an egregious wrongdoing that must be corrected,” Kelley said .

The union is also calling on Congress to override President Donald Trump’s planned pay freeze for most federal employees in 2027. AFGE said all federal employees deserve “at least” a 3.8% raise, which would put them in line with the planned raise for law enforcement officers and closer to military members’ planned 5-7% salary boost.

“Making sure they earn a fair wage isn’t just good for them — it’s good for the quality of government services and the people we all serve,” Kelley said.

With the upcoming flip in Congress, there may also be opportunities for legislation to move through committees or get tacked onto must-pass bills, such as the National Defense Authorization Act and government spending legislation.

“A lot of federal workforce-related legislation that might not have moved in the last couple of years — because it was against what the current president and administration were doing, and his own party wasn’t going to challenge him on that — is potentially going to go through the committee process through the House and be considered in the Senate,” said John Hatton, staff vice president of policy and programs at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).

Already, some Democrats have been posturing toward that goal. In September, leaders of the Federal Workforce Caucus outlined plans for attempting to override the Trump administration’s proposed pay freeze for most civilian employees in 2027.

The lawmakers intend to push for a raise to be included as a policy rider in fiscal 2027 spending legislation, which Congress is expected to negotiate in the coming weeks as the current continuing resolution’s Dec. 11 expiration date approaches.

“It definitely changes the negotiating posture over the appropriations bills,” Hatton said. “I’m still not sure on the timing of how everything will come together. But the fact that Congress will change, and the makeup will change, gives Democrats greater negotiating leverage over that. If they’re pushing for a pay raise, which I believe they are as part of the appropriations bill, then there’s a greater chance it gets in there.”

The upcoming power shift in Congress will also lead lawmakers to conduct greater oversight of the Trump administration. Because the incoming Senate majority won’t meet the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster, and with the president’s veto power, Democrats will likely lean in on deeper investigations of the Trump administration.

Among Democrats’ laundry list of planned oversight into the Trump administration, NPR reported that the Department of Government Efficiency’s overhaul of the federal workforce is a potential area of investigation. That could include probes into recent federal workforce-related actions, such as reductions in force (RIFs), employee separations and other overhauls to the government’s personnel systems.

Public Citizen, a non-profit advocacy organization, urged the incoming Congress to hold hearings and open investigations into the Trump administration’s agency staffing decisions over the last nearly two years.

“The immense number of staff cuts and the resulting loss of institutional knowledge … will pose governance challenges for years, if not decades,” the non-profit wrote in a roadmap of oversight opportunities in the new Congress.

Many former public servants were also vying for congressional seats in the midterms. Out of at least a dozen former federal employees on Tuesday’s ballot , a handful either won or were leading close races at the time of publication.

Zach Dembo, a Democrat, was elected to the House seat for Kentucky’s 6th District over Republican opponent Ralph Alvarado.

Democratic candidate Nancy Lacore is ahead in a tight race against Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt in South Carolina’s 1st District. And Sam Forstag, a former Forest Service smokejumper and former vice president of National Federation of Federal Employees Local 60, is leading over Aaron Flint in the race for the House seat in Montana’s 1st District.

“NFFE is incredibly proud of Sam for running a tremendous campaign that centered on improving the lives of working people and federal employees,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said Wednesday.

And from the public’s perspective, government accountability appears to be a common interest among voters. Government ethics and reform were often cited as issues that drove voters to the polls on Election Day, according to a survey from the Partnership for Public Service. The issue was cited by 17% of those surveyed, falling second only to inflation and the economy, which 41% of respondents named as an influence in their voting decisions.

“Twenty-five percent of respondents want the incoming Congress to prioritize the reduction of waste and fraud and 23% want elected leaders to prioritize oversight of the executive branch,” Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier said. “The Congress can act on Day One to restore independent oversight, protect the career civil service from partisan influence, insist that agencies and their leaders carry out laws as Congress intends and clear the red tape that keeps government from delivering results.”

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Drew Friedman is a workforce, pay and benefits reporter for Federal News Network.

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