WaPo: The Federal Brain Drain Is Rapidly Escalating

The Washington Post reports:

At the National Institutes of Health, six directors — from institutes focused on infectious disease, child health, nursing research and the human genome — are leaving or being forced out. At the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly a dozen top leaders, including the chief air traffic officer, are retiring early.

And at the Treasury Department, more than 200 experienced managers and highly skilled technical experts who help run the government’s financial systems chose to accept the Trump administration’s resignation offer earlier this year, according to a staffer and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Across the federal government, a push for early retirement and voluntary separation is fueling a voluntary exodus of experienced, knowledgeable staffers unlike anything in living memory. Effects will be felt over coming months and years, employees predicted, as agencies lose people representing decades of institutional knowledge — imperiling the quality of work done and services provided.

Read the full article. As previously reported here, European governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to lure US scientists.

Thousands of experts and leaders are fleeing Trump’s government – The Washington Post https://t.co/G9SApjQcE5

— Susan Sternberg (@swmstn2) May 17, 2025