Critical Analysis

1. Which federal agency had the largest addition in its percentage of employees during the Trump administration?

2. Which federal agency had the largest decline in its percentage of employees during the Trump administration?

3. What most surprised you about this chart?

4. What is the big story this chart tells?

5. Why do you think think these changes occurred?

6. What was the most positive consequence of these changes?

7. What was the most negative consequence of these changes?

8. Imagine that we were at the end of four years of the Biden administration. What are three agencies that you think would have grown the most?

9. How do you think these changes impacted job satisfaction in these agencies?

10. What are three specific ways the POTUS can control or influence government agencies?

11. What are three specific ways the Congress can control or influence government agencies?

12. Make a claim about whether the Biden administration should increase or decrease the size and power of the U.S. State Department.

Learning Extension

Check out the NY Times Upshot graphics and article about changes in the U.S. bureaucracy under Trump.

Action Extension

Contact the Biden White House and let him know what part of the bureaucracy you’d like to see increased.

Visual Extension*