President Donald Trump has moved to downsize or eliminate the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a small independent agency that has faced detailed allegations of wasteful spending and lax oversight. Investigative reporting by The Daily Wire, based on audits and interviews conducted a decade earlier, described a pattern of questionable expenses, self‑dealing, and perks for employees at the 230‑person agency, which was created to mediate disputes between unions and businesses.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) was one of seven small federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered downsized or eliminated on a recent Friday, according to an investigative report by The Daily Wire. The independent agency, which exists to provide voluntary mediation between unions and businesses, has been described as a 230‑employee operation whose director nominally reports to the president but in practice operates with limited oversight.
According to The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak, who says he spent a year investigating FMCS about a decade ago, the agency’s workforce and leadership were the subject of extensive findings of waste and abuse involving hiring, pay, contracting, and government purchase cards, based on internal audits and interviews with current and former staff.
Among the examples cited in that reporting:
- The agency commissioned oil portraits of top employees, with one portrait of a brief acting director costing $2,402 to retouch.
- A senior official, George Cohen, used a "recreation and reception fund" to buy champagne, $200 coasters, and artwork painted by his wife.
- Employees "unblocked" safeguards on government credit cards and then used them for apparent personal expenses, including leasing a BMW and charging a spouse’s cell phone, cable television at both a primary and vacation home, and a newspaper subscription, according to the article.
- One employee, Dan W. Funkhouser, allegedly used his government card to rent a storage unit near his home in rural Virginia, where he stored personal items such as a photo album of his dog, and spent $18,000 at a local jewelry store. An audit cited in the report said he destroyed purchase card records when he left the agency.
The Daily Wire report further alleges that hiring and contracting practices at FMCS often benefited insiders and associates:
- Allison Beck, a former union lawyer who became a top FMCS official, hired her sister‑in‑law as a special assistant, and an inspector general report cited by The Daily Wire found evidence she tried to create a senior‑level job for a friend.
- Trainers who won agency contracts were paid $1,500 per person per day plus $163 an hour for travel, terms that internal critics said exceeded federal rules.
- Scot Beckenbaugh, a top official earning about $174,000 a year, was listed as having his "duty station" in Iowa, which allowed him to treat his work in Washington, D.C., as a long‑running business trip and have food and lodging covered at taxpayer expense.
- The agency hired a former Pennsylvania mail carrier, Lu‑Ann Glaser, into a high‑level D.C. position and agreed to pay hotel costs for half of each month so she could work in Washington, rather than recruiting someone based locally.
- Human‑resources official Paul Voight was recorded as living in Washington despite actually living in Wisconsin, a practice that enabled him to receive a higher cost‑of‑living adjustment, according to the article.
Travel and facilities spending also drew scrutiny. The Daily Wire’s reporting describes a pattern of frequent trips to desirable destinations, framed internally as outreach to potential users of FMCS services but functioning in practice as extended travel for staff. The agency maintained an office in Honolulu, and senior officials took repeated trips overseas and to U.S. resort areas.
In one month, according to the report, Beck traveled to Italy and Switzerland, where she ultimately held a business meeting by video chat, then went on to Tunisia and to an island off the coast of Georgia. She allegedly flew first class and sought reimbursement for mileage to and from a vacation home in Maine.
Within its Washington headquarters, the agency is reported to have spent $30,000 on trinkets commemorating staff anniversaries, hired a consultant for a "Hallway Improvement Project" to decorate the corridors, and equipped an employee gym with a $1,000 television, a $3,867 ice‑maker, and a $560 stereo.
The article also recounts grants and payments that critics said had tenuous connections to FMCS’s mediating mission, including funding for outside organizations and training courses, though the details of those awards are drawn from internal documents rather than public grant databases.
One employee quoted by The Daily Wire described a culture of limited productivity and cushy working conditions, saying many staff members "don’t do a hell of a lot" and praising the generous offices and relaxed expectations on time spent away from desks.
Rosiak’s reporting notes that internal concerns were occasionally raised to oversight bodies. In one case, an accountant, Carol Booth, complained to the General Services Administration about financial abuses, only to be pressured, according to the article, into sending a follow‑up email rescinding her statement—a message she said was drafted by Cohen. The piece also describes an instance in which a former FMCS official incorporated a limited-liability company that later received $85,000 in agency funds labeled as "call center services," despite having no website or working phone.
The Daily Wire report says some of the findings from past inspector general reviews and audits were referred to the FBI, but it does not identify any criminal prosecutions that resulted. It further notes that some officials who were cited in oversight documents or internal complaints later continued their federal careers, including receiving presidential nominations under previous administrations.
While the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate or sharply reduce FMCS’s budget provides the immediate context for The Daily Wire’s renewed reporting, the article does not detail the internal deliberations that led to the decision nor any formal rationale beyond longstanding concerns about redundancy and waste. There is no public record that the administration explicitly attributed its move to the specific abuses described in Rosiak’s earlier investigation.
As of now, FMCS has been targeted for downsizing or closure but remains subject to the federal budget and appropriations process. The extent to which the agency’s operations will be reduced or transferred, and whether any of the past conduct described in audits and investigative reports will lead to further action, remains unclear.
Confidence score: 72
Confidence comment: Most of the detailed allegations about spending, hiring practices, and travel at FMCS are drawn from a single, extensive investigative report by The Daily Wire that relies on internal audits, inspector general findings, and interviews. Those specifics are not independently corroborated in multiple outlets, but key contextual claims—such as FMCS’s size, mission as a mediator between unions and businesses, and its inclusion among small agencies targeted by the Trump administration for elimination or downsizing—are consistent with public records and contemporaneous reporting. Because much of the narrative rests on one primary investigative source and internal documents that are not all publicly searchable, the overall confidence is moderate rather than high.
