Prominent civil service awards will hit differently this year after the Trump administration decimated the federal workforce.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan good government research group, announced Monday its honorees for 2026’s Service to America Medals, which recognize outstanding public service by government workers. This is the 25th anniversary of the organization giving out the awards, nicknamed the “Sammies” and considered the federal government’s version of the Oscars.
Only four honorees were selected for the 2026 medals, a significant drop from the 23 medalists last year, and 25 the year before that.
“Because of the disruption and upheaval over the past year — we lost over 300,000 federal employees — and the adversarial nature of the relationship between the White House and the career workforce, we received less nominations than we typically do,” Michelle Amante, senior vice president of government programs at the partnership told POLITICO’s E&E News.
The group received more than 140 nominations from 39 agencies to pick this year’s honorees. That is much smaller compared to over 350 nominations from 65 agencies for 2025 and more than 530 nominations in 2024.
Having fewer honorees “certainly isn’t reflective of the amazing work that’s being done by our public servants across the federal workforce,” Amante said.
This year’s Sammies arrive during Public Service Recognition Week but also stop-start turmoil at several agencies. As he promised on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump has sought to downsize government and reshape it toward his administration’s agenda, including prosecuting his political enemies and pulling back a wide swath of regulations.
Amante said for the 2026 medals, some agencies didn’t participate at all, while others only offered a handful of nominations. The partnership typically receives dozens of nominations from Cabinet-level agencies.
“It’s a difficult year, also because of the psychological safety that federal employees are feeling,” she said.
“Over the past two years, we have had honorees decline to come to the program or accept an award because they were fearful of their job or fearful of their work being spotlighted in a way that could create a problem for them in the future,” Amante said.
The Partnership for Public Service’s four honorees this year are:
- Gharun Lacy, Department of State, for finding and stopping a cyberattack by Chinese-tied hackers on the department’s email accounts.
- James Szykman, EPA, for working with NASA on its satellite to track and address air pollution.
- Jill Frisch, formerly of the IRA, for litigating cases against multinational companies that led to the recovery of billions of tax dollars.
- Ransom Baldwin, Curtis Van Tassell and Paul VanRaden, Department of Agriculture, for using DNA research and genetic testing to change dairy cattle breeding, resulting in better milk production and animal health.
“After more than a year of upheaval in the federal workforce, these honorees are a powerful testament to what career civil servants make possible every single day,” said Max Stier, the partnership’s president and CEO, in a statement. “This 25th anniversary is a moment to reflect on just how much that work still matters.”
Szykman, a senior research engineer at EPA, has been on assignment at NASA’s Langley Research Center since 1999. He helped prepare the space agency long before its 2023 launch of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO for short) satellite so it could collect data to better inform decision-making about air quality management back on Earth.
“I realized my EPA expertise could help bridge a critical gap to make our collective output far more effective,” Szykman said in a profile on the Partnership for Public Service’s website.
“Ultimately, my public service has been a commitment to being the connective tissue between scientific discovery and public health protection,” he said.
The awards will be presented Wednesday at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. The Sammies have honored over 800 federal employees since they began in 2001.
Asked if the partnership plans to do the awards next year, Amante said, “We will take one year at a time, but that is the hope that we can continue celebrating public service.”
“This is such an important event for civil servants,” she said. “It is an opportunity for them to be recognized not only in Washington, D.C., but nationwide.”
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