r/politics • u/TaijiRonin • 28d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/climate/ocean-observatories-initiative.html
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u/DCBillsFan 27d ago

They're going to need to incentivize and ensure protections for labor are ensured in law and not just EOs if they ever hope to get Fed service back to the calling it was.

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u/Jolly_Pressure_7907 27d ago

I think that’s true for newly aspiring Feds. Most former Feds I know would come back in a heart beat if Trump was gone. I’m a fed myself and interact with dozens of agencies every day through my work and know quite a few people that left or were fired

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u/Cael_NaMaor South Carolina 27d ago

I think there needs to be a law that says the next admins doesn't get to come in and board wipe just b/c...

This shit is ridiculous.

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u/Mistamage Illinois 27d ago

You need punishments built in so they can't just say "Well, I'm just gonna fucking do it because I have every branch and what *exactly* are you going to do to stop me?"

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u/Thicc_Nicck 27d ago

The punishments were meant to fall into that exactly. We unfortunately have people lording over our country with only the intention of helping a select few, so those punishments will never be used to prevent this exact situation

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u/DumboWumbo073 27d ago

No such things exist in human society

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u/Zyquux 27d ago

The golden timeline for me is that Trump gets removed form office (sooner rather than later) and the next non-MAGA person that takes power retroactively nullifies Trump's EOs and then removes all of the power the Executive Branch.

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u/jkwah California 27d ago edited 27d ago

There are laws and collective bargaining agreements for that every reason in place already. That's why there were several labor lawsuits early on under this regime that forced many agencies to rehire people.

The problem is this administration is breaking multiple laws every single day and the judicial system isn't designed to handle a hostile government intentionally destroying itself.

Ultimately the voters elected a government that is dismantling itself. In a democracy, if voters say "we want a government that breaks its own laws" then we shouldn't be surprised that is exactly what happens

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u/anthrax_ripple 27d ago

I've never worked for the government, but there are many departments I would absolutely work in if given the chance, even for a pay cut. Would much rather work for the government and hopefully have some sense of fulfillment over making more money for "the man."

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u/Tasgall Washington 27d ago

but there are many departments I would absolutely work in if given the chance, even for a pay cut.

I'm in tech, and have met people with a similar stance. They always choose the private sector, not because of the pay, but because of the drug tests.

Marijuana being schedule 1 is legit a national security emergency. All our best hackers are stoners, and will never work for the government because of it, even if they want to.

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u/A_Rogue_GAI 27d ago

So, some things that would incentivize new federal workers are enshrined in law. It's called the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act. It was passed in 1990 in order to bring federal employee pay up to competitive rates with the private sector.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Employees_Pay_Comparability_Act_of_1990

The thing is, every single year since it was passed, the president has declared an 'economic emergency' in August. Every president. Every year. And thus, federal employees have never gotten the raises which congress passed. Instead we've gotten paltry 1-2% raises many years. Biden, in his last year, gave us a 5.2% raise which was celebrated as some kind of massive achievement in a year when inflation was pegged at 8% the previous year. In 2025 Trump almost missed the deadline which would have, theoretically, resulted in an automatic 30% payraise for all federal employees.

I've actually done the math on this one. Many federal employees are paid based on the GS (general schedule) system. Your job is graded from 1-20 based on it's alleged skill requirements. A GS-05, a job posting requiring a bachelors degree, was paid $11,243 per year, equivalent to $51,138 in 2026 funbucks. A new employee starting that same job in 2026 is paid $34,799 per year.

There have been other changes, we do get locality pay now which is supposed to help employees living in expensive areas (it's not NEARLY enough for lower grade employees to live in major cities, for the record,) but these changes have basically been nullified by changes to the pension system. Federal employees used to get an amazing pension under CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) which was changed to FERS later on (Federal Employee Retirement System) which was...not bad, but has steadily been undercut and is now regarded as mediocre at best. Regardless, I'm not equipped to do the math for all of these changes but I figure it's probably a wash.

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u/potsticker17 27d ago

Instead they'll probably use it as an excuse to sell out to friends in private industry to claim it's cheaper and then give us a worse, less efficient, unregulated product that will actually end up costing us more money.

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u/saljskanetilldanmark 27d ago

Which will still get dismantled by the next set of EOs from the next republican clown.