Congress fears Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E will push young talent away from federal jobs

Federal agencies across the country are losing workers by the thousands, and Congress is warning that Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E is driving the next generation of talent straight into the private sector, according to NBC News.

Lawmakers say President Trump’s layoffs and hiring freeze, carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency, are not just gutting the system now—they’re cutting off its future.

Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, said on Capitol Hill that the Trump-Musk cuts are blocking fresh talent from ever stepping foot into federal service.

“The recruiting challenge they’re creating for themselves is enormous,” Tim said. “I don’t think that’s an accidental byproduct. I think that’s a known consequence — and they don’t care.”

Virginia holds hundreds of thousands of federal jobs, and Tim said those workers are being tossed aside with zero regard for long-term hiring needs.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland, said the scorched-earth approach from D.O.G.E is pushing young people away before they even get started. Maryland is packed with civil servants, especially around D.C., and Chris said they’re now surrounded by fear and chaos.

“I’m very worried that this will discourage talented young people from joining the federal service,” he said. Chris, whose parents both worked in government, said young people used to enter federal jobs to serve the country. “With the Musk-Trump approach, they’re effectively terrorizing the federal civil service,” he said.

Even Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, said the operation has gone too far. “DOGE has been good for showing where our money is being spent and some of the stupid projects that were funded,” Don said. “But it has been too rash in the firings. Better analysis needed to be done. It’s not efficient to fire someone and then rehire.” Don said it’s basic logic. “Measure twice, cut once,” he said.

Students drop government careers after D.O.G.E cuts

Georgetown University students near D.C. are already dropping federal work from their career plans. One student, who asked not to be named because she wasn’t allowed to speak to reporters, said her internship at a science agency was supposed to become a full-time job after graduation in May. That plan collapsed after D.O.G.E layoffs hit her department, and the federal hiring freeze locked the door shut.

“I loved the work that I did so much and I could feel like it had a tangible impact on real people,” the student said. She had wanted to go into the public sector, unlike most Georgetown students who head to private firms. But now? “I’m probably just going to try to pivot into consulting, even though it’s kind of late, or do tech.” She said she’s holding out “a little bit of hope” that the freeze will end in April. “But I know that is probably not realistic.”

This kind of shift is exactly what Tim and Chris say they’re worried about. The D.O.G.E policies are pushing skilled college students out of public service and into high-paying jobs at crypto and tech companies instead. Tim said the administration is making no effort to reverse this trend. Chris said this isn’t some silent result. He said it’s deliberate.

Russ Vought says civil servants should feel ‘trauma’

Russ Vought, who now leads the Office of Management and Budget under President Trump, said the goal is to hit government workers emotionally. In a 2023 speech, Russ said:

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

The video of that speech was obtained by ProPublica and has since circulated among lawmakers. Chris responded to that quote by saying, “Russ Vought was quite open about it. Unfortunately, this will have a huge dampening effect on the ability to recruit.”

When reporters asked the White House about these concerns, Liz Huston, a spokesperson, didn’t mention young professionals or hiring freezes at all. She pointed to the 2,000+ political appointees Trump has installed in under two months.

“Never before in history has an administration hired such a huge number of qualified, capable, and America-first Patriots in such little time,” Liz said in a written statement.

She named Russ, Tom Homan, Sean Parnell, Harmeet Dhillon, Kash Patel, Kari Lake, Brent Bozell, and Jay Bhattacharya as examples of “incredible MAGA warriors.”

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, also said the Trump administration has been busy filling top jobs. She said 281 appointees had already been confirmed by the Senate, with another 280 in the process, and that all political jobs at the White House, Office of Personnel Management, and General Services Administration are already filled.

But those are just the political slots. Most of the federal workforce—over 3 million people—are career civil servants, not political picks. Those are the ones now being shut out or pushed out.

Trump shuts down Presidential Management Fellows Program

While firing workers and freezing hires, President Trump also signed an executive order on February 19 to kill off one of the only remaining federal career pipelines. The Presidential Management Fellows Program, launched almost 50 years ago, pairs grad students with government agencies. These aren’t just interns. These are people trained to become future leaders in public service.

The Office of Personnel Management announced the “talent management system” will be shut down by the end of this week. That means all future placement is canceled. Chris said the message is clear: “So I guess they don’t want young people serving the country. I mean, that’s the message they’re sending.”

Arati Prabhakar, who was director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy under Biden, said D.O.G.E is telling people with technical skills and science degrees to “pound sand.” Arati used to lead DARPA under Obama and said it took hard work to bring in tech talent. People left better salaries in the private sector to solve big national problems, and that was only possible because federal jobs gave them the freedom to work at scale.

“It takes so much nurturing to find those few people, and then they make such a difference, and that’s what’s being disrupted,” Arati said. She now lives in Silicon Valley and recently reconnected with a former White House intern who’s about to graduate from Stanford with a computer science degree and deep AI knowledge. That student wants to enter public service and already has an offer. But now she’s doubting it.

“She doesn’t know if it’s going to stick in this current environment,” Arati said. “And you know what DOGE’s actions are doing? Those actions are telling these immensely talented people who want to serve our country — they’re telling them to pound sand.”

Arati said that’s the opposite of what should be happening if the government wants to bring in the best and brightest.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More