There is a dangerous idea that part of the federal government can be removed. Just watch the highlights, backspace and the system reorganize like it's new. But we are trying to learn what happens when you press delete without knowing what you are erasing.
More than 20,000 federal employees reportedly say “yes” to the Trump administration's acquisition offer. (A federal judge suspended the acquisition program until Monday's hearing on Thursday.)
These workers leave the Nuclear Institute and the Cybersecurity Command Center. They incorporate decades of expertise, including knowledge about complex systems and the ability to navigate chaos.
And when the next crisis comes? While the power grid is shutting down, we see the space they used to be.
The administration sells this as a taxpayer victory – an unnecessary bureaucratic cleanup. That's not what's happening. Buying does not reduce waste. They cut down on their expertise.
The federal workers who shop are the most marketable and skilled people tomorrow. The most advanced and experienced nuclear engineers, cybersecurity experts keep foreign enemies out of our power grid. These are the first people to leave.
What's left? Some of them have no other options.
The Trump administration is going to learn the basic functions of government in the difficult way by destroying them and seeing what happens. However, you don't need to look into this buyout to understand what will happen. Look at what happened in the past when small acquisitions were offered.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Loss 27% of senior nuclear scientists Previous acquisition roundsrecruiting and training costs have reached $450 million. Ministry of Energy I spent $2.1 million on shopping For 42 senior engineers, they spent $5.8 million to recruit exchanges at a higher salary.
However, the most expensive cost is not even the direct replacement cost. These are devastating obstacles that arise when critical expertise disappears. When the Pentagon Cyber Command lost 18% of its senior technical staff to the acquisition, emergency contractor costs reached $380 million. When FEMA loses 23% of experienced disaster response coordinators, It needed $250 million Hurry in the training program.
The overall government pattern is clear. Bad plan buyouts won't save money – they force experienced employees to quit, hire emergency contractors for 2-3 times more cost, and recruit permanent exchanges at a higher salary Accelerating training will be spent on millions of people working on training to address costly failures during the gap between program and expertise.
This is not about protecting the bureaucracy. The function of government is to understand that it is not a simple system that can be confused by blanket policies. True government efficiency requires understanding that our most valuable resources are not office space or equipment. That's expertise. Every time we pay the best talent to leave through an unplanned acquisition, we are not saving money. We pay a premium price to create a gap in expertise that costs more money to fill.
The Trump administration's approach reveals dangerous patterns of dealing with complex government systems like simple business units that can be freely reduced, from grant freezes to acquisition offers. But government is not business and expertise is incompatible. When Trump blames Day for aviation accidents and launches a policy that hinders aviation expertise, he shows exactly why he can't afford to simplify the complex systems that keep Americans safe. Masu.
We continue to see this pattern until government efficiency realizes that we need to have a deeper understanding of how these systems actually work. A rush to create expensive chaos followed by an expensive scramble to rebuild lost abilities. This government-efficiency fantasy is about to spend billions of US dollars on avoidable issues.
It's time to give up on dangerous fantasies and casually dismantle complex systems without understanding what's broken.
Cheryl Kelly is a former government official with experience in five US cabinet agencies, including director of planning, management and budget. She is an auxiliary fellow at the Pell Center at the University of Salbresina and the author of “Informed Citizens: How the Modern Federal Government Runs,” and is the novel “Radical, American Love Story.”
