At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician and opponent of slavery proposed the establishment of a “Peace Office.” But it wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that Senator Spark Matsunaga, Jennings Randolph, and Mark Hatfield moved to establish a Peace Academy, which was approved and signed into law by President Reagan in 1981.

The institute’s objective was established to foster international peace through basic and applied research, education, and training. In fiscal year 2023, Congress approved a $55 million budget to support a staff of some 300 professionals in Washington and activities in some 17 countries. Among its activities have been studies to determine why nearly half of all international peace agreements revert to armed conflict within 5 years.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has fired most of the employees and installed a DOGE staff person as president of the institute. In March, Trump announced he was firing all the institute’s board members, excepting the ex-officio board members. The institute’s privately funded headquarters building has been transferred to the General Services Administration.

The institute and several of its board members filed a lawsuit to prevent their rremoval and stop DOGE from taking over its operations. A U.S. District Court Judge reversed DOGE's actions and the institue's president retook control off its headquarters building.

The Institute’s total budget was 0.000004% of the Defense Department’s budget.

Following the creation of the Department of Labor, Congress approved the creation of the U. S. Conciliation Service in 1917, which was renamed the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in 1947, the oldest continuing mediation institution in the country. From its creation, the FMCS has provided mediators when requested by labor and management. In many ways, FMCS set the standard for mediation in America.

In fiscal 2024, the agency’s 54 million dollar budget paid the salaries of about 220 employees who conducted over 5,400 mediations and more than 10,000 arbitration panels to settle labor disputes. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has placed all but about a dozen of FMCS employees on administrative leave with firings to follow saving an estimated 0.0014 percent of the federal budget.

About a dozen major unions have filed lawsuits to reverse Trump’s actions arguing that the agency saved the country’s economy some $500 million annually. Some major employers and trade organizations have also petitioned Trump to reverse the decision.

DOGE has responded that the remaining dozen or so mediators will handle only labor disputes involving more than 1,000 employees nationwide.