ARRC Awards 11 Research Stipends to Examine the Impact of Federal Workforce and Program Cuts

The Volcker Alliance and the Accountability and Reform Research Consortium (ARRC) are pleased to award 11 stipends to support research on the effects of recent cuts to the federal workforce and federal programs on public service delivery, citizens, and democratic governance.  This round of stipends is in response to two requests for proposals related to the “Governance Capacity” and “Impacts” pillars of ARRC’s research agenda.

• Anthony Howell of Arizona State University will develop an Innovation Governance Capacity Index (IGCI) to assess administrative capacity at the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The research will track how workforce reductions at these agencies have affected the innovation pipeline, from grant processing delays to increases in patent pendency to slowdowns in standards development.
• Scott E. Robinson of Arizona State University will analyze active federal proposals to reduce FEMA's role and devolve emergency management responsibilities to state and local governments. The project will develop a general model for measuring emergency response capacity and compare it with community need, as measured by historical data on disaster losses within each office’s jurisdiction. The results will show where need and capacity align and reveal regions unprepared for prospective disasters.
• Thomas Bryer of the University of Central Florida will study how recent personnel and policy changes at the National Park Service (NPS) are reshaping administrative capacity across national parks, cooperative partners, nonprofit conservancies, and “Friends of” organizations. Findings will inform NPS leadership, partner organizations, and policymakers as they weigh responses.
• Kate Albrecht of the University of Illinois Chicago will examine how federal funding disruptions since January 2025 are impacting Chicago's health delivery systems. Partnering with the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, a nonprofit health policy organization in Chicago, the study will document the mechanisms through which funding shocks cascade from the federal level to organizations, health workers, and ultimately the public's access to health services.
• Jung Won (Leo) Choi of Georgia Institute of Technology & Georgia State University will examine how state Departments of Transportation have outsourced managerial capacity for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review to private engineering consultants, and what that shift implies for democratic accountability over infrastructure decisions. The findings will equip oversight bodies with a framework for assessing whether agencies retain meaningful governance capacity or primarily ratify decisions their contractors have already made. An overview of changes to NEPA standards in light of recent executive orders and expectations will be provided.
• Hongseok Lee of the University at Albany will examine executive orders and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rule changes, congressional oversight hearing transcripts, and national print media coverage to map how procedural and rhetorical attacks on the federal civil service—including merit, expertise, and horizontal oversight—have evolved across multiple administrations and the ways, if any, they are affecting democratic safeguards.
• Sungjin Lee of San Diego State University will investigate how changes in federal administrative capacity shape the governance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The research will examine year-to-year variations in federal SNAP staffing and oversight through the end of 2025, and in state-level administrative costs, performance, and outcomes over time.
• Zach Mohr of the University of Kansas will examine the impacts of changes in federal financial capacity on state, local, and tribal governments. The project will estimate year-over-year changes in federal funding to states, counties, cities, school districts, and tribal governments between 2024 and 2025. The findings will inform both methodological practice and policy debates about the consequences of devolving federal funding to services delivered at lower levels of government. 
• Gordon Abner of the University of Texas at Austin will develop a composite, agency-level measure of administrative capacity in the State of Texas using quarterly personnel and budget data from state agencies. Results will inform state-level policy debates about civil service reform and offer a transparent measurement approach applicable beyond Texas. Implications of federal workforce cuts and devolved responsibility will be considered.
• Jaclyn Piatak and Lauren Azevedo of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will examine how membership associations, including 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) organizations with operating budgets over $2 million, are responding to federal funding cuts and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The findings will speak to the downstream effects of federal retrenchment on the nonprofit and professional sector, and on the communities these associations serve.
• Erin Steinkruger of Inside Passage Field Studies will investigate how recent personnel and policy changes are reshaping U.S. Forest Service capacity on the 16.7-million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. The research will surface impacts on planning, permitting, maintenance, tribal consultation, and long-term monitoring, as well as the consequences for local and regional economic activity in rural and remote Alaskan communities. The study will capture frontline manager perspectives in real time to inform both policymakers and future research. 

“Dramatic cuts to the federal workforce without careful, evidence-based deliberation don’t simply reduce the size of government, they risk eroding the professional expertise and institutional knowledge that democratic societies depend on and shift governance burdens to state and local governments,” said Chris Koliba, ARRC co-chair and Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration, Policy & Governance at the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. “That is precisely why the research being pursued through ARRC is so vital right now." 

“When the machinery of government is being reshaped at a speed and scale that outpaces public understanding, it is our responsibility to ensure rigorous, independent research is making sense of what is happening and what is at stake,” said Sara Mogulescu, president of the Volcker Alliance. “We are proud to support these important projects through ARRC.”

The findings and tools produced by these researchers will be made public and accessible on the ARRC webpage in the coming months. 

The Volcker Alliance is grateful for the support of the Henry Luce Foundation and ARRC’s Founding Member Policy Schools.