United States Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
According to the data, while the total number of employees rose by 5% since 2020, payroll grew nearly five times as much.
The current federal workforce is costing American taxpayers $673,000 per minute, $40.4 million per hour and just under $1 billion per day, according to Open The Books. This includes almost 1,000 workers who are making more than the president's $400,000 per year salary, 31,452 non-War Department federal employees who made more than every governor of all 50 states and 793,537 people making $100,000 or more. Those making $300,000 or more have seen an 84% increase since 2020, while there has similarly been an 82% increase in those earning $200,000 or more, the report points out.
During Open The Book's investigation, the fiscal watchdog group also found that the names of 383,000 federal workers across 56 different agencies were redacted, amounting to a total of $38.3 billion in pay.
"The Trump administration has a historic opportunity to bring transparency to the administrative state. While federal employees don't add as much to the debt as safety net programs or defense spending, they do cost us a billion dollars per day. Their performance for taxpayers can be the difference between efficient, effective services and a vicious cycle of administrative bloat," Open The Books CEO John Hart told Fox News Digital.
A sign marks the location of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters building on January 29, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)
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"Transparency and accountability in the federal workforce are essential to maintaining public trust," the spokesperson said. "Providing the public with clear, standardized information about federal positions, duties, and compensation while appropriately protecting employee privacy is an important part of good government."
Ernst's Where’s WALDO Act would include both direct employees of the government and federal contractors. Once the bill has passed, OPM will have 18 months to develop the directory.
The directory, according to the bill, must include each worker's name, job title, description of duties, agency of employment, primary duty station, their annual rate of pay including bonuses, and the date at which the individual started working in their position.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-employees-hot-seat-gop-senator-pushes-transparency-historic-opportunity