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The recent termination of the Federal Executive Boards (FEB) program will require agencies to rethink the way the federal workforce communicates and collaborates across the country.
As agencies move forward without FEBs, some expressed concerns that agencies could revert to a more siloed approach to emergency preparedness and federal employee training, while facing limited opportunities for cross-agency management.
For the last two years, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had been working to improve FEBs’ reach and effectiveness, but in February, the nationwide network of federal executive boards came to an abrupt end.
The cancellation of the FEB program was lumped into a broader executive order from February, where President Donald Trump terminated a number of federal programs. Trump’s order described the canceled programs, including FEBs, as “unnecessary governmental entities.” The order also alluded to the administration’s stated goals of cutting costs and creating more efficiencies in government.
“It is the policy of my administration to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government, while increasing its accountability to the American people,” the Feb. 12 executive order states. “Reducing the size of the federal government will minimize government waste and abuse, reduce inflation and promote American freedom and innovation.”
One federal employee familiar with the FEB program said the termination of FEBs came just as the program was “about to hit its stride.”
“You know how you go up a roller coaster with all that anticipation? We were at top of the hill ready to come down and have all the fun,” the employee, who spoke to Federal News Network anonymously, said in an interview.
After the termination of the program, many of FEBs’ functions and responsibilities have now been returned to individual agencies. OPM officially brought the country’s 28 boards of federal executives to an end last month.
“The elimination of FEBs will reduce administrative overhead by eliminating a bureaucratic organization the President has determined is unnecessary,” OPM wrote in its March 21 final rule. “OPM anticipates that savings to the government will outweigh any costs associated with the transition.”
However, in Federal News Network’s 2024 in-depth series on FEBs, supporters of the program argued the opposite. Many said the FEB program saved costs and created opportunities for more collaborative work across the broader federal workforce, more than 80% of which is located outside the Washington, D.C., region.
“FEBs can certainly enable resource-sharing to make government more efficient in the field,” Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, said in a 2024 interview as part of the FEB series. “Let’s say there’s an earthquake in California, or in Florida — FEBs work together to say, ‘How do we make sure, as agencies are making decisions to respond to this in D.C., we’ve got a plan to execute that more effectively?’”
FEBs’ work before the elimination
Prior to their elimination, the 28 federal executive boards had regularly collaborated to discuss goals for improving the federal workforce and hosted various events for federal employees in their region. FEBs also helped coordinate plans for national or local emergencies like hurricanes and snow days.
Federal Executive Boards were created by executive order from President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Over time, the role of FEBs shifted immensely. By 2024, the program was on the verge of another major transformation. A few years prior to the cancelation of the program, the FEBs had been reshuffled into OPM in an effort to better manage and consolidate FEBs’ work.
In OPM’s 2024 annual report, leaders reported that FEB programs saved $7.8 million in training costs and avoided another $16.3 million in agency training expenditures. The FEBs’ programs — including learning opportunities, mentoring programs, awards programs and other training sessions — extended to more than 30,000 federal employees in fiscal 2023.
OPM said at the time it saw an opportunity to extend FEBs’ reach to more than double the number of feds who can access the program’s resources. As part of a five-year strategic plan, the program had planned to add more FEBs in different cities and expand the reach of existing chapters. A March 6 article on LinkedIn from a former leader of the FEB program detailed more of the program’s history, as well as how it has transformed over time.
Long-term FEB goals tossed
Over the last few years, one long-term goal for federal executive boards was to address a common challenge for agencies: Better connect with federal employees in remote locations, who often experience lower engagement and satisfaction in their jobs.
Agencies also generally have a more difficult time recruiting and retaining employees in far-reaching regions, such as Alaska and Hawaii. In the results of the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, federal employees located in the “Eastern” FEB — or those typically closer to agency headquarters — had higher engagement scores than those working in the areas covered by the “Western” FEB, who are geographically farther from headquarters.
Many saw FEBs as a key avenue for connecting federal employees across great geographic distances.
“Each FEB serves as a strategic hub, linking federal agencies to one another and to communities, supporting federal initiatives and collaboration,” GAO wrote in a 2024 report.
Before its termination, the FEB program switched to a different, more stable funding model. Previously, each agency would choose whether they wanted to pay for an employee to join an FEB, but they could pull out the funding at any time, leaving FEBs uncertain.
Under the recent changes, before the elimination of FEBs, the program had created central a fund that agencies paid into. Running the FEB program on a pooled funding model was intended to make the program more sustainable. It was also meant to bring in optional training and development programs at no cost to agencies.
What comes next for the nationwide federal workforce
In Federal News Network’s 2024 series on FEBs, many FEB leaders across the country said they viewed each FEB as a liaison between local federal employees and agency headquarters.
FEBs were a crucial part of coordinating cross-agency efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to sources familiar with the program. The boards have also helped answer federal employees’ questions about retirement, and provided information and training sessions about the Thrift Savings Plan, Social Security and the Federal Employees Retirement System.
FEBs were also central to the coordination efforts for the annual Combined Federal Campaign, which lets federal employees donate to charitable organizations around the world. The CFC donated $30.3 million to charity in 2024 and has raised a cumulative total of $8.7 billion since the campaign first launched over 60 years ago.
But now with the final rule in place eliminating the FEB program, all unused funds from federal executive boards will be returned to their home agencies. All employees working on FEB-related work will either be reassigned to a new position or removed from their jobs. And all “essential coordination functions” of federal executive boards will now be managed by individual agencies, OPM said.
The employee familiar with FEBs said the cancellation of the programs would cause more inefficiencies across agencies, particularly in management, employee training, and federal emergency responses.
“I hope they do restore the program. There’s an added value to the agencies,” the employee said. “You might not miss it right now, but once these leaders start feeling the siloes, that is when you will miss it.”
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