Sen. Lisa Murkowski Says Public Workforce Deserves Respect, Not 'Absurd' OPM Email

A lot of federal employees have managed to make time to appear on cable TV to complain about having to list five things they accomplished at work last week, something which should take five minutes. One worker said she felt "absolutely infuriated" by the request. However, it's not just federal employees who have a problem with the email. As we reported on Monday, Sen. Andy Kim urged our public servants to "stay strong" and apologized that they were being "threatened."

Also weighing in from the Senate was Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who called the email "absurd" and said that public servants should be "treated with dignity and respect."

If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut.

Our public servants work hard to ensure that our national security is protected; that…
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) February 23, 2025

Her post continues:

… that planes land safely; that forest fires do not spread to our homes; that Social Security checks arrive on time; that research for the breakthroughs needed to cure diseases like cancer and ALS continues; and much more.
Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.

Wow, each and every one is a hero. Maybe the email was sent to smoke out those public servants who've been working from home since COVID and don't even check their email anymore, or even those who don't exist at all.

Murkowski was still at it on Tuesday, saying the request for five bullet points by a deadline was "intimidation."

Lisa. If these federal workers are so essential, they should have zero problem listing five things they accomplished.

Maybe if D.C. wasn’t bloated with useless bureaucrats leeching off taxpayers, we wouldn’t have open borders, failing infrastructure, and a broken economy.…
— MAG🔫1775🇺🇸 (@Mar50cC5O) February 23, 2025

It's not difficult to know if someone is actually working or not.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) February 24, 2025

She says, "Our public servants work hard..." I know some of them do. I was one of them. But to suggest they ALL work hard is a political wishful-thinking with no connection to real life.
— Jim Kaness (@JimKaness) February 24, 2025

Wouldn’t it be easier for them to just list a few things they actually did?
— 𝙼𝚁. 𝙻𝙴𝙰𝙳𝚂𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶𝙴𝚁 (@Lead_Flinger) February 23, 2025

If naming 5 things you did last week is “intimidating”, perhaps you didn’t get anything done.

Sadly, Murkowski’s list would include voting against Trump nominees.
— Kevin M. Nelson (@KevinMNelsonUSA) February 25, 2025

True.

I have a quarterly review next week.
I am going to start the meeting by claiming this is intimidation.
— Eddie from Acworth (@eddyfromacworth) February 25, 2025

They are so out of touch to the real world. What exactly is the "proper chain?" The one that takes weeks, months to get answers? No, I like the reply email better. It wouldn't be hard at all.
— Kelly (@KellRN42) February 25, 2025

Sure, senators want to shrink the size of government, but they want to do it without laying anyone off. A five-bullet email is a lot easier to go through than the "proper chain," which is just more layers of bureaucracy.

***