Which agencies do Americans think are doing a good job?

Republicans feel more positively about the job that agencies are doing while Democrats express the opposite opinion, according to Gallup survey data released Thursday. This phenomenon is typical when the presidential administration changes parties, but the polling organization noted that some agencies’ ratings have decreased significantly since 2024. 

Researchers wrote that the Homeland Security Department is the only agency to experience "significant improvement” in its job rating (42% of respondents giving it an “excellent” or “good” rating compared with 32% in 2024). This was driven by 73% of Republicans and Republican leaners providing a positive rating to DHS, which is a 59% increase from last year. 

DHS has played a central role in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. 

Compared with 2024, majorities of Republicans now also give positive ratings to the Defense Department (74%) and FBI (51%). Both agencies are led by Trump appointees — Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director Kash Patel — who have lambasted their predecessors and taken actions criticized as being partisan. 

Still, some agencies received lower marks from Democrats without a countervailing increase by Republicans. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency experienced the greatest decline, going from a 46% positive job rating down to 26%. Administration officials have been critical of the disaster agency and signaled that it would be reformed to place more responsibility for recovery on states. There was a 6% reduction in Republican and Republican leaners who gave a positive rating to FEMA and a 37% decrease among Democrats and Democratic leaners. 

Positive ratings for EPA (25%) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (31%) also worsened compared with last year. Democrats have accused the leaders of both agencies under Trump — Lee Zeldin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the secretary of CDC’s parent department — of undermining the agencies’ missions. 

There was a 26% decrease among Democrats giving a positive job rating to EPA and a 31% reduction for the CDC. Conversely, there were 10% increases among Republicans for both agencies. 

The U.S. Postal Service was the only agency in the poll, which covered 17 agencies, to receive a majority positive rating (56%), which was also the case in 2024. 

Gallup conducted its survey between Sept. 2-16. 

A Pew Research Center poll that was conducted from Aug. 4-10 similarly showed Republicans having more favorable views of DHS, FBI and CDC. 

Overall, 13 of the 16 agencies in Pew’s survey had a positive net favorability rating, with the National Park Service (76%), National Weather Service (76%) and USPS (69%) having the highest favorability percentages. NPS and NWS were not in Gallup’s poll. 

Gallup asked respondents to rate whether an agency was doing an “excellent, good, only fair or poor job”; whereas, Pew asked participants if they have a “favorable” or “unfavorable” view of an agency. 

The Partnership for Public Service also reported in a spring poll that 33% of respondents said they trust the federal government, which is a 10-point increase from 2024 that was largely driven by a greater share of Republicans reporting trust in government.