DPE Announces Coalition to Defend Professional Integrity in the Federal Sector

July 1, 2025

Ben Kessler  -  Ben Kessler, AFM Director of Government Affairs

Musicians depend on the professional integrity of the federal workforce. From copyright registrations and regulations to workplace standards and grantmaking, government employees’ decisions uniquely affect musicians’ ability to make a living. AFM members are, of course, not alone in this regard. Everyone living in the United States deserves a government free from undue influence.

We need dedicated public servants to safeguard our food supply, drinking water, and modes of transportation. Access to safe and effective medicines and medical devices are possible only when federal workers are guided by science and data. Those professional choices have a global impact. These are among the reasons the AFM is proud to join the Coalition for Professional Integrity.

On May 6, the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE), of which AFM is a member, announced the formation of the Coalition for Professional Integrity. Reports of federal workers forced to circumvent the law and forgo professional standards have become commonplace. Labor unions and organizations across the country saw a need to speak out.

Members of the Coalition for Professional Integrity include AFM, Actors’ Equity Association, Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Teachers, American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO DPE, Government Accountability Project, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and National Federation of Federal Employees.

In her op-ed in the Federal News Network, DPE President Jennifer Dorning noted that May 6 was the 40th anniversary of Public Service Recognition Week—a time I remember fondly during my time at the National Endowment for the Arts. As Dorning notes, in the last four months, at least 121,000 federal employees have been fired or selected for layoffs and over 75,000 additional federal employees have been pressured into taking buyouts. She said, “We must also fight for them.”

The attacks on federal employees have reached the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control. And those left, who intend to stay to serve the public, are doing so under a specter of fear and retribution. They are working without their missing colleagues who held unique institutional knowledge and expertise. We depend on them to perform essential functions without the resources necessary to do their jobs.

Congress must act now to reverse the Trump administration’s haphazard, chaotic, harmful, and often unlawful attacks on the federal workforce. The Coalition for Professional Integrity will continue to speak out with every reported instance of intimidation. We will work together to uphold union contracts and ensure protections are in place for whistleblowers. When federal workers are forced to choose between professional integrity and keeping their jobs, working people everywhere suffer.

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