Employment Law Report
From Mediation to Minimalism: The Future of Federal Agencies Under the Trump Administration
By: Isaac Keller
The Trump Administration continues to take action to reduce the presence of the federal government and its workforce. One of President Trump’s latest executive orders, Executive Order 14238 titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” significantly reduces the operations and staff of seven independent agencies. A few of the agencies targeted include the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
Trump’s executive order mandates that the “non-statutory components and functions of” these agencies “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” and that each agency shall “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law[.]” According to the Trump Administration, the “President has determined” that these agencies are “unnecessary” and their reduction aims to assist Trump’s mission of reducing wasteful government spending and government overreach.
The executive order notably takes aim at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), a small, independent federal agency that provides mediation and conflict resolution services for private employer-union disputes. FMCS was established in 1947 under the Taft-Hartley Act, and has played a role in preventing strikes and facilitating workplace-union negotiations. In 2023, FMCS mediated 2,467 collective bargaining negotiations, 1,265 high-impact grievance mediations, and 1,100 alternative dispute resolution cases. [1] The agency also conducted over 1,500 training and intervention programs and has played a role in the arbitration of workplace disputes. It provided over 9,500 arbitration panels in 2023 and appointed over 4,000 arbitrators.
Before Trump’s executive order, FMCS employed 202 individuals. Since the issuance of the executive order, however, FMCS has reduced its staff by at least ninety-five percent (95%)—maintaining roughly a dozen employees. The number of mediators offered by FMCS has likewise diminished, dropping from 143 mediators to just four.
The impact Trump’s order will have on the FMCS’s role in private labor disputes is still unknown. The reduction in staff and mediators would suggest that FMCS will, at the very least, be less involved in workplace disputes and negotiations. Similarly, wait times to schedule and attend mediations through FMCS will likely increase. Other federal agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, are unable to assign mediators under federal labor law. As a result, many private conflicts between unions, workers, and companies may require the hiring of a private mediator, as opposed to the free mediation services provided by FMCS.
On April 4, 2025, a coalition of 21 states filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island challenging Executive Order 14238. [2] These states allege that Trump’s attempt to reduce federal agencies violates the Administrative Procedure Act as it compelled “seven agencies to abandon all of their discretionary programs without engaging in a shred of reasoned analysis.” The lawsuit also alleges that Trump’s order violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by overriding congressional enactments that authorize the existence of, and apportionment of funds to, the seven federal agencies.
The fate of FMCS and the other six agencies listed in Trump’s order is a mystery. For now, employers and employees should monitor these legal developments that may determine the prominence of the FMCS and its relevance in employer-employee disputes.
[1] FMCS Chief Operating Officer Greg GoldStein, Fast Facts About the Agency, Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (Jan. 2024), accessed at FMCS-Fast-Facts-FY23-update-Jan-2024.pdf.
[2] The Complaint can be found here: IMLS Filing.pdf.
