Lawmakers Push for Answers on Proposed Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey

As Federal News Network reported in August 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) canceled last year’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).

The decision to scrap FEVS in 2025, according to an OPM email to federal agency chief HR officers, was made “in view of President Trump’s realignment of the federal workforce, and in order to thoughtfully recalibrate the FEVs to align with administration objectives.”

The same email said that OPM would update the survey’s questions and would resume administering the poll in 2026. This year’s survey has yet to surface, and a group of Democratic legislators wrote a recent letter seeking to ensure that the newly proposed survey “provides needed transparency and complies with statutory requirements.”

“FEVS provides federal employees an ability to respond to questions that are critical to ensuring our federal agencies can carry out their work for the American people, and it is an important tool for understanding and improving the federal workforce,” according to a statement from Virginia Congressman James Walkinshaw, one of the 23 Democratic legislators who authored the June 18 letter.

“However, the lawmakers question whether the Trump Administration’s proposed 2026 FEVS would make dramatic changes to the survey that could limit its usefulness and undermine its intent,” the statement read. “These changes follow the Trump Administration’s rampant attacks on federal employees and its cancellation of the 2025 FEVS.”

While OPM moves forward with the 2026 FEVS, the lawmakers noted that any alterations to the survey “must satisfy the legal requirements for the survey and collect the necessary data to increase government efficiency and transparency.”

As such, the legislators writing the letter sought answers to a number of questions surrounding the survey. For example, the letter’s authors requested a copy of the FEVS 2026 questions, and asked whether agencies will retain the ability to add their own questions to this year’s FEVS. They also inquired about OPM’s planned timeline to deliver the 2026 survey, and whether the results would be released publicly, and if so, when.

Full text of the letter can be found here.