Washington, DC — The volume of federal employees who are disclosing wrongdoing is surging as are the numbers who report retaliation for making such reports, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). At the same time, the Trump White House has removed the leaders of entities such as OSC, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and agency Inspectors General, compromising their effectiveness, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

In its Congressional Budget Justification for Fiscal Year 2026, OSC details that –

• The number of federal employees filing formal disclosures of waste, fraud, abuse, or other wrongdoing has jumped more than 93% from FY 2012 to FY2024 (906 to 1757);
• The number of employees filing formal complaints of “prohibited personnel practices,” principally retaliation for whistleblowing, has risen more than 75% during the past three years (from 2,304 in FY 2021 to 4,017 in FY 2024); and
• Despite the increased workload, the Trump administration plans to cut OSC’s staffing by more than 10% with reduced funding.

In the dry words of its Budget Justification, the result of the confluence of more cases and less staffing means: “Significant, increased demand for OSC’s services in FY 2026 may impact the agency’s ability to meet statutory deadlines in resolving cases.”

“Despite widespread rhetoric about government efficiency, the very people who can best identify problems are increasingly ignored,” commented PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. “This is akin to turning off all of the smoke alarms in the name of fire safety.”

Perhaps even more debilitating are actions by the White House to summarily remove the Special Counsel and Chair of the MSPB, the civil service court, mid-term. As a result, as of April 9^th the 3-member MSPB lost its quorum and thus its ability to decide appeals. During almost all of Trump’s first term, MSPB was also shut down, creating a backlog of thousands of undecided cases – a backlog MSPB has significantly reduced over the past three years.

In addition, Trump’s removal of nearly 20 agency Inspectors General left those investigative bodies without leadership and has compromised their independence. “Any watchdog agency whose investigations or findings displease the Trump White House risks further gutting by this administration,” commented PEER General Counsel Joanna Citron Day, who recently joined PEER from the U.S. Department of Justice. “The professional perils of whistleblowing have always been high, but today the risks are doubly daunting.”

While the MSPB and almost all the Inspector General vacancies remain unfilled, Trump has nominated a 30-year-old ultra-conservative pundit who espouses conspiracy theories and disparages civil servants to serve as the U.S. Special Counsel. A 2022 law school graduate, his scant legal experience has been devoted mainly to defending the January 6^th U.S. Capitol rioters.

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See OSC’s Congressional Budget Justification for FY 2026

Look at the lack of MSPB’s quorum

Examine effects of IGs’ loss of independence

Read Trump’s post on his Special Counsel nominee