Van Hollen, Colleagues Press Administration for Answers on Cancellation of Federal Employee Survey Essential for Government Oversight

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), along with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Representative James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, led 17 of their colleagues in pressing the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for answers on its cancellation of the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), an important tool for understanding and improving the federal workforce. In their letter to OPM Director Scott Kupor, the lawmakers expressed concerns that the FEVS is being cancelled with no alternative method in place for federal agencies to meet their legal obligation to survey employees and that the loss of the data typically collected by the FEVS will result in less government efficiency and transparency.

Senator Van Hollen, Senator Peters, and Representative Walkinshaw were joined on this letter by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.), as well as Representatives Don Beyer (D-Va.), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), and Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.).

"We write to express our deep concern regarding the recent announcement to cancel the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). As you know, the FEVS is a critically important tool for understanding and improving the federal workforce, which assists agencies in meeting a legal requirement to survey their employees and supports Congress in our work to oversee executive branch activities," the Members began.

"This year's absence of FEVS means OPM will not collect or release governmentwide data on how federal employees currently view their jobs, supervisors, and organizational culture. This loss of transparency is troubling. The data not only aids internal agency improvement but also supports congressional oversight and holds leadership accountable," they continued. "Congress uses this information to ensure that agencies are fulfilling their missions effectively, meeting statutory requirements, and upholding the values of a high-performance, merit-based civil service."

Given their concerns, the Members ask Director Kupor to answer a series of questions including how federal agencies will meet their legal requirement to survey their employees now that it will no longer be met by the FEVS; what the justification is for cancelling the FEVS, rather than simply delaying it to incorporate the changes OPM claims are necessary; and how the Administration plans to collect necessary data about employee experience to make administrative and management decisions.

Text of the letter can be viewed here and below.

Dear Director Kupor,

We write to express our deep concern regarding the recent announcement to cancel the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). As you know, the FEVS is a critically important tool for understanding and improving the federal workforce, which assists agencies in meeting a legal requirement to survey their employees and supports Congress in our work to oversee executive branch activities.

For years, the FEVS has served as a vital workforce management tool that provides leaders with a real-time pulse of their organizations. The survey captures insights into employee engagement, organizational culture, leadership effectiveness, and workplace trust. Agency leaders have relied on this data to drive reforms and enhance performance. Removing this data in 2025 deprives agencies of an evidence-based method to assess and improve operations.

This year's absence of FEVS means OPM will not collect or release governmentwide data on how federal employees currently view their jobs, supervisors, and organizational culture. This loss of transparency is troubling. The data not only aids internal agency improvement but also supports congressional oversight and holds leadership accountable. Congress uses this information to ensure that agencies are fulfilling their missions effectively, meeting statutory requirements, and upholding the values of a high-performance, merit-based civil service.

As such, we request by October 31, 2025 detailed answers to the following questions and a Congressional briefing to better understand the impact of the proposed cancellation of the 2025 FEVS.

1. Section 1128 of Public Law 108-136 (5 U.S.C. 7101 note) requires that federal agencies conduct an annual survey of its employees to assess leadership and management practices that contribute to agency performance and employee satisfaction, pursuant to OPM regulations. Such regulations in Title 5 Part 250, Subpart C of the Code of Federal Regulations mandate that agencies conduct the annual workforce survey with 16 core questions before December 31 of each calendar year. With OPM's announced cancellation of the 2025 FEVS, it is unclear how agencies will comply with this statutory obligation. Does this Administration plan to adhere to the statutory and regulatory requirements to complete the data collection of an annual employee survey by December 31, 2025? If so, how?
2. What advice or guidance does OPM plan to give agencies for how they can meet the annual requirement to conduct a survey of their employees now that this requirement will not be fulfilled by FEVS?
3. What process, operational, or bandwidth constraints have resulted in OPM making the decision to completely cancel the administration of this year's FEVS rather than administer it on a delayed timeline? If the decision is not related to capacity, what other explanation justifies a cancellation rather than a delay?
4. In an email to agency Chief Human Capital Officers and other HR leaders, OPM stated that it has decided not to administer FEVS this year "[i]n view of President's Trump's realignment of the federal workforce, and in order to thoughtfully recalibrate the FEVS to align with Administration objectives." The email says OPM will instead update the FEVS questions before administering the survey next year. What specific changes to FEVS does OPM anticipate related to the realignment of the federal workforce and Administration objectives? How do these changes compare to the changes described in a February OPM guidance memo that discussed removing 13 specific questions and reinstating 1 additional question?
5. When asked directly about delay of FEVS in April 2025 during your Senate confirmation process, you stated that you did not know the rationale behind the current delay, "but believe that employee engagement surveys are an important longitudinal view of the workforce." What have you learned between when you responded to this question in April and OPM's August 15 email to agency HR leaders about the rationale for delaying, and now cancelling, the FEVS for 2025?
6. Earlier this year, while the U.S. Senate was considering your nomination to the position of OPM Director, you noted that: "In the organizations I have been affiliated with, I have always conducted regular employee engagement surveys (typically once per year, but sometimes more often when there are more changes happening in the organization)." What has shifted about your approach toward the frequency of employee engagement surveys as Director of OPM compared to the prior positions?
7. Understanding the employee experience is an important part of ensuring high-level organizational performance. How does OPM intend to ensure agencies have adequate employee experience data to drive effective administration and management decisions?
8. With gaps in data collection caused by the 2025 FEVS cancellation and changes to what information is collected through FEVS going forward, how will OPM and federal agencies gather data sufficiently consistent with data from prior years in order to analyze trends in employee engagement over time? Is OPM committed to preserving the integrity of this type of longitudinal data?
9. OPM has indicated that the FEVS will return in FY2026. What is the timeline for next year's FEVS survey (including the process for making changes to questions, collecting responses, and publishing results)?
10. The suggestion that future survey administration could be completely decentralized across agencies raises significant concerns, particularly given the current state of many HR offices, which have been severely strained due to recent workforce reduction initiatives. How does the government plan to administer the survey given these new capacity constraints?

Thank you for addressing our concerns regarding the cancellation of the 2025 FEVS and the impact it will have on federal employees, government management, and congressional oversight.

Sincerely,

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