Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: The Biden administration arrived in January to find an exodus of foreign service officers at State, climate scientists gone at Interior and EPA, and workplace safety inspectors at Labor dropped under Trump. @rbravender reports on the path ahead. ($) ow.ly/IGZ050DBSLX

Biden is scrambling to make government work cool again, hoping to staff up w/ young idealists who buy into the "build back better" slogan. His admin is looking at ways to rehire some of the many scientists, retired officials, & other experts who hit quit over the last 4 years.

It won't be easy. Some agency veterans who left have moved on from the US government & say they're not interested in coming back. Fights over where to prioritize federal $ will likely mean Biden & Congress have tough choices about which of their pet issues they want to pay for.

And even some government employees who are relieved by the Democratic president's rhetoric about empowering the federal workforce are worried about how another administration after Biden might approach workers.

The gov jobs portal is packed with openings, like a Kansas-based EPA criminal investigator, a diversity & inclusion specialist for the Peace Corps, & a guide at Kings Canyon National Park. It's critical that these jobs are filled across the bureaucracy, per former US officials.

"We don't have the bandwidth to do the diplomacy that Biden is promising," said Brett Bruen, a former foreign service officer at the Obama National Security Council.

Some who stepped down during Trump say they'd be happy to pitch in Biden's team called. "I keep everything on the table," said Mustafa Santiago Ali, who resigned as a top EPA environmental justice official less than two months into Trump's tenure in the White House.

Ali, who was rumored to be in the running for several top Biden administration environmental jobs, told @thisisinsider that he enjoys the freedom to hold people accountable from outside the government, but he isn't ruling out returning for the right job.

Despite Biden's pledges to revive morale in the US government, there's a fear that a future administration might repeat Trump's attacks on the civil service.

"What if we have president Tucker Carlson in 2024?" said a former federal government worker who left during Trump.