Pamela Herd is the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center. Her research focuses on inequality and how it intersects with health, aging, and policy. She is…
J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy
Donald Moynihan is the Ford School’s J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy. Previously he served as Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy Chair of Public Policy and the director of the La Follette School at the…
Research, learning, and impactThe Ford School is home to or co-sponsor of a growing number of active, multi-disciplinary research centers and initiatives leveraging the knowledge and expertise across the University of Michigan. They serve as a...
Empowered bureaucrats can make decisions that will lead to better and more efficient service for citizens, according to Dan Honig, author of “Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering People To Help Government Do Better.” In a Policy Talk at the Ford...
"If you take away pictures of women, if you take away pictures of Black heroes, of Asians, of Native Americans, of Latinos, then who's left?" asked Don Moynihan, professor at the Ford School. Moynihan spoke with All Things Considered on a recent...
States have varying approaches to boosting government efficiency. Route 50 turned to the Ford School's Don Moynihan to analyze Pennsylvania's method of increasing efficiency after they recognized their state's processing systems fell behind other...
In a recent article from TIME Magazine, the Ford School's Pamela Herd was quoted as an expert on public policy as the network searched for an explanation on delayed Social Security benefits. Herd stated, "People are waiting for hours to get through...
The Trump administration appears particularly focused on “the president having absolute power and control over where money goes regardless of laws on impoundment or statutes on agencies... It’s a consolidation of power in the name of efficiency,"...
With Trump's plan to increase efficiency and cut government programs, Social Security is under fire. The Christian Science Monitor cited the Ford School's Pamela Herd as she argued “Social Security is a clear promise to Americans that if they pay...
Current government operations under the Trump administration are pointing to signs of democratic backsliding. The Ford School's Don Moynihan has stated that Americans have put too much faith in the law. Quoted in an article from the Financial Times,...
The Ford School's Don Moynihan spoke with The Daily Beast and commented on the removal of government history from various agency websites, specifically targeting topics involving DEI or POC and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. "It's this sort of...
Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan, faculty at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and co-founders of the Better Government Lab, address this issue in a new article published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. They offer a...
NewHour turned to the Ford School's Don Moynihan seeking an explanation for the recent removal of American military history from the U.S. Department of Defense website. Moynihan told NewsHour "There’s certain codewords that are being used to detect...
Pam Herd, Ford School professor, talked about the Trump administration's strategies to cut the government work force, saying "It's the move fast and break things approach, without really thinking through the implications of a range of different...
The Ford School's Don Moynihan was quoted in an article from Reuters investigating the large federal employee cuts taking place under the Trump Administration. Moynihan discussed why President Trump is using a buyout approach while administering...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor, said the DOGE cuts at agencies created by Congress "is implementing an unprecedented scale of disruption.” Rather than just shrinking the government in ways conservatives have long advocated, these efforts by...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor says his worries about donors dining with Trump is "where there doesn’t seem to be a clear line between Trump’s businesses and the presidency.” He says, “The concern is less about fundraising and more about access...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor, spoke about reports of DOGE employees receiving six-figure salaries from government agencies. He said, "It does seem worth understanding what these employees are being paid, especially if they are being paid...
“To what degree do you trust them?” asks the Ford School's Don Moynihan of the some 54,000 to 104,000 Trump loyalists expected to assume public service positions after Trump's wave of mass federal firings. “That is quite a different proposition than...
"There’s a fundamental realignment of power here," said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the Ford School, commenting on the mass federal firings carried out by the Trump administration. “This administration is saying we have much more...
The Ford School's Don Moynihan has written an article in The Atlantic examining DOGE and asserts it is a failure as an agency to promote efficiency in the government. Rather, Moynihan argues that DOGE and its actions are causing large disruptions in...
As President Trump sweeps the civil service workforce across federal agencies, there are some roadblocks he's set to encounter. Some laws existing to protect federal employees challenge the efforts of the administration. “Many of these systems have...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under scrutiny from the Trump administration. Many scholars, including the Ford School's Don Moynihan, are raising alarms over the threats to the CFPB. "The CFPB's basic mission is to protect American...
Donald Moynihan, professor at the Ford School, commented on President Trump's nomination for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought: “Vought is Trump’s Thomas Cromwell: the behind-the-scenes fixer who enables his master’s...
Ford School Professor Don Moynihan, an expert in the inner workings of the federal government and how government programs affect the public, was widely sought-after in the first days of the Trump administration, as it laid out its plans to...
EXPERT ADVISORY—Two Ford School experts are available to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to freeze federal loans and grants, firing special employees involved in prosecutions of the president and other actions. Donald Moynihan, is a...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor, described how the current administration is changing rules on Schedule F employees, "officials who played PR or advocacy roles at the request of the prior administration," who are now subject to possible "adverse...
As Donald Trump prepares to take office, news outlets are turning to the Ford School's Don Moynihan about what's on the horizon for civil servant jobs, and the validity of Elon Musk's claims to cut government spending by 2 trillion. “How the civil...
Sociologist Pamela Herd joined the Ford School faculty in September 2024 as the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Her research focuses on inequality and how it interacts with policy issues including health, aging, and administrative...
Donald Moynihan joined the Ford School this year as the next J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy. His research seeks to improve how government works by studying the administrative burdens people encounter in government, and he...
