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…
Moynihan: "State capacity” is hard to define and measure, and is perhaps seen as boring, but capacity is the hidden glue that holds public policy together, or, when debased, causes public policy to fall apart. If you care about the quality of...
Dean Watkins-Hayes, at the Congressional Breakfast in DC, with Michigan in Washington undergraduates Ajay Morelli, Malinda Brunk, Rachel Ellisen, and Isaac Davis, and Riecker Fellow Hope Wang (MPP...
Through an executive order, President Trump intends to reclassify hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants' job titles as "schedule policy/career" positions. Don Moynihan from the Ford School told Reuters,"By deeming anyone involved in...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor, said “Money is a an aggressive growing tumor at the heart of American democracy. The 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race cost $56 million, a national record at the time. The 2025 version blasted that out of...
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...
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,"...
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...
“A shutdown is aligned with the goals of DOGE,” said Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the Ford School speaking with Wired. The network turned to Moynihan for insights regarding the federal employee firings taking place through DOGE's...
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, 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...
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...
“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...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor and co-director of the Better Government Lab, talked about the court orders against the Trump administration, saying, ""Trump administration broke the law by pausing legitimate spending. The courts told him to...
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...
With the emergence of AI as one of the largest technological innovations of the decade, scholars suspect AI will soon be used by the government to determine where to cut funding. "Everyone is excited about the use of AI, and over time it will...
The Washington Post reviewed the Trump administration's recent acts to cut civil servant employees and terminate federal agency operations. Donald Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School, said “such a power would be too great in the hands of any...
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 DC career exploration trip, a long-standing annual tradition organized by the Ford School's Career Services, took place on February 6 and 7. This year’s trip saw over 80 graduate and undergraduate students—the largest group of student...
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...
"On Friday, the administration announced that it would cap the overhead, or “indirect” rates, that the National Institutes of Health allows on its grants to universities," writes Ford School professor Don Moynihan in an essay published by The...
“If this isn't a constitutional crisis, I'm not sure what is,” said Donald Moynihan, public policy professor at the University of Michigan. This comment follows recent actions taken by the new DOGE leader, Elon Musk, of infiltrating various...
The Ford School's Don Moynihan spoke with Reuters on the spread of power DOGE is inflicting across other federal agencies. The network quoted Moynihan stating that Americans are witnessing "an extraordinary centralization of power in someone [Elon...
