2026-05-07T09:00:03.203Z / 《华盛顿邮报》
在美国DOGE局大幅精简公务员队伍一年后，政府职员仍对触怒特朗普政府心存忌惮。
2025年2月11日，联邦职员在华盛顿上参议院公园集会，敦促国会保护公务员职位免受政治干预。（莫莉娅·拉特纳 为《华盛顿邮报》拍摄）
作者：梅里尔·康菲尔德
这场面向联邦职员的第25届奥斯卡式颁奖礼——塞缪尔·J·海yman联邦服务卓越奖章——表彰了五届前任政府时期的公务员队伍，前总统乔治·W·布什和乔·拜登均录制视频亮相。
但颁奖典礼周三晚间并未提及现任白宫掌权者的名字。
在总统唐纳德·特朗普与埃隆·马斯克的DOGE局大幅精简公务员队伍一年多后，这场表彰联邦 workforce 的盛会——昵称“萨米奖”——规模大幅缩水。与往年相比人数锐减的观众挤满了美国印第安人国家博物馆的礼堂，庆祝本年度获奖者，这种差异一目了然。
美国公共服务伙伴关系组织首席执行官马克斯·斯蒂尔表示，许多联邦职员担心过于引人注目会遭到报复，因此提名和获奖的公务员数量都有所减少。该非营利组织今年共收到39个联邦机构及其他办公室提交的140多份提名，而去年这一数字为65个机构及办公室的350多份提名。
斯蒂尔称，部分被提名者要求不要将其姓名纳入提名名单，但美国公共服务伙伴关系组织拒绝透露更多未参与本届活动的人员信息。
“留下来的职员都在担心，如果自己被表彰，会面临怎样的后果，”斯蒂尔在颁奖礼前的采访中表示。
自特朗普政府官员承诺整治不表达忠诚的员工以来，对报复的恐惧有增无减。在环境保护署、美国国立卫生研究院和联邦紧急事务管理局等多个机构，签署反对其不同意政策的异议信的员工被停职或解雇。其他员工因与媒体交谈接受调查，或在与政治任命官员发生冲突后离职。
白宫未直接回应有关联邦员工表彰活动缩减的问题，但白宫发言人莉兹·赫斯顿表示，政府团队的工作效率有所提升。“特朗普总统让联邦政府比以往任何时候都更高效、更快速地运转，”她在一份声明中写道。
去年的获奖者戴维·莱布里克曾是财政部高级职业官员，因与DOGE局就敏感支付系统访问权发生争执而离职，他出席了今年的活动，并警告称，职员内部的恐惧可能引发严重问题。
“在非常健康的环境中，一线工作人员会主动站出来说‘出了问题，我们需要解决’，”他在采访中表示。“但在当前的环境下，没有人愿意站出来。小问题最终会演变成大问题。”
往届颁奖典礼约有二十多位获奖者，2026年却仅有寥寥数人。其中一位获奖者詹姆斯·西克曼是环境保护署的科学家，他与美国国家航空航天局的研究人员合作，为空气污染监测卫星奠定了基础。他在致辞中感谢了环境保护署现已解散的研究与开发办公室的同事，引发了观众的一阵叹息。
提名西克曼的同事、美国国家航空航天局科学家詹姆斯·克劳福德表示，表彰西克曼的工作是他个人的选择，而非其所在机构的决定。
“我们没有心思躲藏，”克劳福德说。“让我们的工作被看见，是捍卫科学的最佳方式。”
此次机构精简的部分具体情况也被提及。记者安德里亚·米切尔在介绍一个奖项类别时，首先提到了本周国务院约250名长期处于行政休假状态的公务员和外事官员被解雇的消息。
其他获奖者包括：曾追回数十亿美元税款、在去年的精简行动中退休的前国税局律师吉尔·A·弗里施；在国务院抵御与中国有关的黑客攻击的网络安全专家加伦·莱西；以及美国农业部员工保罗·范拉登、兰瑟姆·L·鲍德温六世和柯蒂斯·P·范塔塞尔，三人因提高奶牛产奶量的创新技术共同获奖。
观众席上，非营利领导力联盟首席执行官费拉贝·科尔布环顾四周就座的现任和前任联邦职员。
“这些人每天上班时都在想自己会不会是下一个，”她说。“比起担心自己和职业生涯，他们更担心自己毕生投入的工作。”
曾撰写过关于联邦职员和政府官僚主义著作的作家迈克尔·刘易斯走上舞台，看到台下观众后叹了口气。
“看到所有这些公务员还活着，真是松了一口气，”他引得全场大笑。
颁奖典礼接近尾声时，刘易斯提到了“我们不愿提及的名字”，指的是特朗普，并询问斯蒂尔为何决定批评总统对公务员队伍的拆解。
斯蒂尔告诉刘易斯，长期以来，公务员都避免聚光灯，一心投身公共服务的价值观，以至于25年前第一届萨米奖颁奖典礼筹备时，花了很大力气才说服获奖者前来领奖。
“一开始的问题是，人们因为不习惯这种关注，对被表彰感到不自在，这是不是有点离谱，”刘易斯说，“而现在的问题是，他们如果获奖，反而会被解雇。”
Federal workers had their annual award show. Many were too afraid to show up.
2026-05-07T09:00:03.203Z / The Washington Post
A year after the U.S. DOGE Service dramatically slashed the civil service, government workers are still spooked about getting on the Trump administration’s bad side.
Federal workers rally at Upper Senate Park in Washington on Feb. 11, 2025, to urge Congress to protect civil service jobs from political interference. (Moriah Ratner/For The Washington Post)
By Meryl Kornfield
The 25th annual Oscars-like ceremony for federal workers — the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals — honored the civil service under five previous administrations, with former presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden making video appearances.
But the current occupant of the White House specifically went unnamed Wednesday night.
More than a year after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service dramatically slashed the civil service, the gala honoring the federal workforce — nicknamed the “Sammies” — has become a significantly smaller affair. The difference was noticeable as a crowd slimmer than in years past filled an auditorium at the National Museum of the American Indian to celebrate this year’s winners.
Fewer civil servants were nominated and received awards after many federal workers expressed a fear of retaliation if they drew too much attention, said Max Stier, chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service. In total, the nonprofit organization received more than 140 nominations across 39 federal agencies and other offices, down from more than 350 nominations across 65 federal agencies and other offices last year.
Stier said some people who were nominated asked that their names not be considered at all, though the Partnership for Public Service declined to provide further information about those who did not partake in this year’s event.
“The workforce that remains has worried about what might happen to them if they’re recognized,” Stier said in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
Fear of retaliation has worsened since Trump administration officials promised to crack down on employees who don’t express loyalty. At several agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, employees who signed dissent letters against policies they disagreed with were put on leave or fired. Other employees have been investigated for speaking to the media or left government roles after clashing with political appointees.
The White House did not directly respond to a question about the reduced recognition of federal workers, but White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the workforce has been more effective. “President Trump has made the federal government work smarter and faster than ever before,” she wrote in a statement.
Last year’s honoree, David Lebryk, who was the Treasury Department’s top career official until a dispute with DOGE over access to sensitive payment systems, attended this year’s event and warned that fear within the workforce may lead to great problems.
“In a very healthy environment, your frontline workers are going to raise their hand and say, ‘Something went wrong, and we need to fix it,’” he said in an interview. “And in this environment you have right now, no one’s hand is raised. What you’re going to have is situations that are small problems that are going to become big problems.”
While previous years had about two dozen honorees, 2026 had just a handful. One, James Szykman, an EPA scientist who collaborated with NASA researchers to pave the way for an air pollution tracking satellite, offered credit to his colleagues at EPA’s now-defunct Office of Research and Development, which drew a groan from the audience.
The colleague who nominated Szykman, NASA scientist James Crawford, said it was his choice, not his agency’s, to celebrate Szykman’s work.
“We’re not in the mood to hide,” Crawford said. “Shining a light on the work we do is the best way to defend the science.”
Some other cuts to agencies were specifically mentioned. Journalist Andrea Mitchell introduced an award category by first noting the firings this week of about 250 civil servants and Foreign Service officers at the State Department who had been stuck on administrative leave.
The other winners were: Jill A. Frisch, a former IRS lawyer who recovered billions of tax dollars but retired in last year’s cuts; Gharun Lacy, a cybersecurity expert who fended off Chinese-linked hacks at the State Department; and U.S. Department of Agriculture employees Paul VanRaden, Ransom L. Baldwin VI and Curtis P. Van Tassell, who shared an award for innovations that improved milk production in dairy cows.
In the audience, Pherabe Kolb, the CEO of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, looked at the current and former federal workers seated around her.
“All these folks are going to work every day wondering if they will be next,” she said. “More than worrying about themselves and their careers, they’re worried about the work that they devoted their lives to.”
Author Michael Lewis, who has written books on federal workers and government bureaucracy, walked out onstage and sighed at the sight of the audience.
“It’s a relief to see all these civil servants are still alive,” he said to laughter.
Toward the end of the ceremony, Lewis brought up “the name we will not speak,” referring to Trump, and asked Stier why he had decided to criticize the president’s dismantling of the civil service.
Stier told Lewis that civil servants have long avoided the spotlight and been devoted to the values of public good, so much so that it took convincing to compile the winners of the first Sammies award ceremony 25 years ago.
“Isn’t it kind of crazy that the problem you had in the beginning, people are uncomfortable being recognized because they’re just not used to that kind of attention,” Lewis said, “and now the problem you have is they are getting fired if they get the award.”
