I’ve given “Bureaucrat of the Year” awards on several occasions. And I even have a “Bureaucrat Hall of Fame” for government employees who go above and beyond normal standards of sloth and avarice.
But what happens when every single employee in a government agency arguably deserves the award? That could apply to some of my least favorite bureaucracies.
- Department of Energy
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of Education
But I’m not writing today about any of those massive departments because they actually accomplish things. Mostly bad things, of course, but the bureaucrats arguably spend some time working.
Instead, let’s recognize a bureaucracy that seems to do nothing and accomplish nothing.
Here are some excerpts from a Daily Wire report by Luke Rosiak.
One of the seven small federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered downsized or eliminated on Friday was rife with corruption, with its employees hiring friends and relatives, commissioning paintings of themselves, and using government credit cards to indulge in constant luxuries.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees… Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms…
FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office. FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. ..........there is no oversight at all…
One thing I could not discover is why the agency actually existed, other than to provide luxurious lifestyles for its employees. Endless junkets to resort destinations, which employees openly used to facilitate personal vacations.
Taxpayers wound up paying for lots of personal goodies for senior bureaucrats.
Top FMCS official George Cohen used a “recreation and reception fund” to order champagne and $200 coasters for his office, and to purchase artwork painted by his wife. The tiny agency commissioned paintings of its top employees…
One employee leased a BMW; another (IT director James Donnen) billed the government for his wife’s cell phone, cable TV at both his home and his vacation home, and even his subscription to USA Today.
Employee Dan W. Funkhouser used his FMCS card to rent a storage unit near his home in rural Virginia, two hours from the office he supposedly worked at, which was used to store personal possessions such as a photo album of his dog, Buster.
Funkhouser also spent $18,000 at a jewelry store near his house… It had an in-house gym for employees, and purchased a $1,000 TV for the gym, a $3,867 ice-maker, and a $560 stereo.
For what it’s worth, other agencies and department surely have similar examples of wasteful and self-serving outlays.
What makes the FMCS unique is that it does nothing else. It exists solely for the benefit of employees (though I should add that it would be an improvement if many other bureaucracies in Washington took the same approach).
I’ll close by acknowledging that I have no idea if Trump can eliminate the FMCS bureaucracy by executive order. But kudos to him – and to DOGE – for making an effort to save a few pennies.
Hopefully that will create some momentum to address the massive programs that actually threaten the country’s future.
P.S. My all-time favorite example of anti-bureaucrat satire is this video, though this top-10 list from David Letterman is a close second.
- More Here: Think USAID was bad? You ain't seen nothin' yet. - March 23, 2025 by Mike McDaniel - Have you heard of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)? If not, that’s unsurprising. It is a 230-employee agency that supposedly mediates disputes between unions and businesses, but that mediation is “voluntary.” Its headquarters is a nine-story building on K Street in DC, which houses—wait for it—60 employees. Where are the other 270? It’s yet another agency that thought it was independent. It wasn't. Most FMCS employees “worked” from home. I put “worked” in quotes because if you thought the USAID or other federal agencies thus far exposed by DOGE were corrupt, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet........
No comments:
Post a Comment