Have you heard of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)? If not, that’s unsurprising. It is a 230-employee agency that supposedly mediates disputes between unions and businesses, but that mediation is “voluntary.” Its headquarters is a nine-story building on K Street in DC, which houses—wait for it—60 employees. Where are the other 170? It’s yet another agency that thought it was independent. It wasn't. Most FMCS employees “worked” from home. I put “worked” in quotes because if you thought the USAID or other federal agencies thus far exposed by DOGE were corrupt, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Graphic: the FMCS in perhaps a more honest time. Mediator Class Portrait 1947. Wikimedia commons.org. Public Domain.

Luke Rosiak at The Daily Wire explains: 

FMCS seemed, quite clearly, to exist for the benefit of those on its payroll, and not much else. One employee told me: “Let me give you the honest truth: A lot of FMCS employees don’t do a hell of a lot, including myself. Personally, the reason that I’ve stayed is that I just don’t feel like working that hard, plus the location on K Street is great, plus we all have these oversized offices with windows, plus management doesn’t seem to care if we stay out at lunch a long time. Can you blame me?”

Actually, yes I can, and so will you as you read on.

Top FMCS official George Cohen used a “recreation and reception fund” to order champagne and $200 coasters for his office, and to purchase artwork painted by his wife. The tiny agency commissioned paintings of its top employees — as one employee told me, “like they were reigning kings or something…I’ve never seen anything like it before.” It spent $2,402 retouching the portrait of someone who briefly held the top job in an acting capacity.

Oh, it gets soooo much worse:

*Using their government credit card, one employee leased a BMW.

*The IT director used his for his wife’s cell phone bill, cable TV at several homes and a subscription to USA Today.

*Another employee used his card to rent a storage unit and charged $18,000 in jewelry, and when he left the agency, destroyed the records.

*When another employee retired, he incorporated a company and another employee gave him $85,000 via a FMCS credit card ostensibly for a “call center,” w hich the company didn't have.

*The FMCS spent $30,000 for employee anniversary trinkets.

*Offices were huge and luxurious, there was a gym for employees outfitted with a $1000 TV, a $560 stereo and a nearly $4000 ice maker.

*A top agency official earned $174,000 per year but listed his “duty station” as Iowa, which allowed him to have his living and food expenses paid in DC, where he actually lived and worked.

*A HR honcho supposedly lived in DC, but actually lived in Wisconsin, getting  higher cost-of-living pay.

*Many FMCS execs didn’t live in or around DC. A CFO, before the telework era, only came into the office twice a week, but left by 2:00 PM.

*The agency had a branch office—in Honolulu.

*Its employees often traveled to exotic destinations, supposedly to find business for the agency, which suggests there was no real work to be had.

*One executive traveled to Italy and Switzerland—first class of course—where she had a business meeting—via video chat. She flew to Tunisia and an island off the Geogia coast and got mileage when she drove to her Maine vacation home.

*And like most such agencies, FMCS gave $63,000 to a hospital that went bankrupt, $51,000 to a childcare company for government licensing fees(?!), and $57,000 to another company to “strengthen of culture of continuous improvement to drive us to world class excellence.”

And those are only the high points.  This too, will be unsurprising:

What surprised me most about my FMCS investigation was what happened afterward: nothing. An inspector general made a referral to the FBI, but there were no prosecutions. Instead, President Barack Obama nominated a chief subject of the investigation to the top job.

Keep in mind these are allegations, and I’ve not seen them elsewhere confirmed, however, considering what we’ve learned about the workings of the federal government in only two months, it’s likely they are, if anything, understated. Fortunately, President Trump has shut down the FMCS, and like so many agencies about which Americans have never heard, this one went down with a whimper, not a bang.

It's also likely no one, not unions, not businesses—other than FMCS employees used to defrauding taxpayers by living kingly lifestyles—will miss the dedicated public servants of the FMCS. There are, however, two potentially worthwhile lessons: Donald Trump and DOGE can’t be sufficiently praised for ridding us of such parasites, and we still ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.