The 25th annual Oscars-like ceremony for federal workers — the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals — honored the civil service under five previous administrations, with former presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden making video appearances.
But the current occupant of the White House specifically went unnamed Wednesday night.
More than a year after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service dramatically slashed the civil service, the gala honoring the federal workforce — nicknamed the “Sammies” — has become a significantly smaller affair. The difference was noticeable as a crowd slimmer than in years past filled an auditorium at the National Museum of the American Indian to celebrate this year’s winners.
Fewer civil servants were nominated and received awards after many federal workers expressed a fear of retaliation if they drew too much attention, said Max Stier, chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service. In total, the nonprofit organization received more than 140 nominations across 39 federal agencies and other offices, down from more than 350 nominations across 65 federal agencies and other offices last year.
Stier said some people who were nominated asked that their names not be considered at all, though the Partnership for Public Service declined to provide further information about those who did not partake in this year’s event.
“The workforce that remains has worried about what might happen to them if they’re recognized,” Stier said in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
Fear of retaliation has worsened since Trump administration officials promised to crack down on employees who don’t express loyalty. At several agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, employees who signed dissent letters against policies they disagreed with were put on leave or fired. Other employees have been investigated for speaking to the media or left government roles after clashing with political appointees.
The White House did not directly respond to a question about the reduced recognition of federal workers, but White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the workforce has been more effective. “President Trump has made the federal government work smarter and faster than ever before,” she wrote in a statement.
Last year’s honoree, David Lebryk, who was the Treasury Department’s top career official until a dispute with DOGE over access to sensitive payment systems, attended this year’s event and warned that fear within the workforce may lead to great problems.
“In a very healthy environment, your frontline workers are going to raise their hand and say, ‘Something went wrong, and we need to fix it,’” he said in an interview. “And in this environment you have right now, no one’s hand is raised. What you’re going to have is situations that are small problems that are going to become big problems.”
While previous years had about two dozen honorees, 2026 had just a handful. One, James Szykman, an EPA scientist who collaborated with NASA researchers to pave the way for an air pollution tracking satellite, offered credit to his colleagues at EPA’s now-defunct Office of Research and Development, which drew a groan from the audience.
The colleague who nominated Szykman, NASA scientist James Crawford, said it was his choice, not his agency’s, to celebrate Szykman’s work.
“We’re not in the mood to hide,” Crawford said. “Shining a light on the work we do is the best way to defend the science.”
Some other cuts to agencies were specifically mentioned. Journalist Andrea Mitchell introduced an award category by first noting the firings this week of about 250 civil servants and Foreign Service officers at the State Department who had been stuck on administrative leave.
The other winners were: Jill A. Frisch, a former IRS lawyer who recovered billions of tax dollars but retired in last year’s cuts; Gharun Lacy, a cybersecurity expert who fended off Chinese-linked hacks at the State Department; and U.S. Department of Agriculture employees Paul VanRaden, Ransom L. Baldwin VI and Curtis P. Van Tassell, who shared an award for innovations that improved milk production in dairy cows.
In the audience, Pherabe Kolb, the CEO of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, looked at the current and former federal workers seated around her.
“All these folks are going to work every day wondering if they will be next,” she said. “More than worrying about themselves and their careers, they’re worried about the work that they devoted their lives to.”
Author Michael Lewis, who has written books on federal workers and government bureaucracy, walked out onstage and sighed at the sight of the audience.
“It’s a relief to see all these civil servants are still alive,” he said to laughter.
Toward the end of the ceremony, Lewis brought up “the name we will not speak,” referring to Trump, and asked Stier why he had decided to criticize the president’s dismantling of the civil service.
Stier told Lewis that civil servants have long avoided the spotlight and been devoted to the values of public good, so much so that it took convincing to compile the winners of the first Sammies award ceremony 25 years ago.
“Isn’t it kind of crazy that the problem you had in the beginning, people are uncomfortable being recognized because they’re just not used to that kind of attention,” Lewis said, “and now the problem you have is they are getting fired if they get the award.”
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