Posted on 09/18/2023 2:43:05 PM PDT by Twotone
The Biden administration wants to make it difficult for future Republican presidents to decrease the size of the federal bureaucracy.
What is the background?
Most career federal civil servants are competitive service employees hired under a merit-based system typical of the nongovernment marketplace. They receive tremendous employee rights against demotion or termination.
Excepted service employees, on the other hand, work jobs requiring specialized qualifications or skills, such as in law enforcement, intelligence, science, and the law. However, excepted employees do not receive the same job protections as their competitive service counterparts unless they meet strict criteria.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating a new job category for federal employees: Schedule F. The new category would have applied to excepted employees whose job exerted any influence over policy. The directive would have essentially made these employee's "at will," and thus would have stripped them of their civil service protections. In theory, it would have made such employees easy to fire.
President Joe Biden rescinded the executive order after taking office.
What is the Biden admin proposing?
The Office of Personnel Management issued a rule proposal on Friday to give federal employees more protections and to rebuff future attempts at slashing the size of the federal workforce.
The new rule stipulates that any federal employee shifted from the competitive service to the excepted service will keep "the status and civil service protections they had already accrued." The rule also clarifies the definition of which employees have influence over policy to mean "noncareer, political appointments."
In a press release, OPM directly cited the Trump administration as motivation for now taking action to protect federal bureaucrats.
"The previous Administration issued an executive order to alter the long-standing system that ensures that decisions to hire and fire career civil servants are based on merit and not loyalty to the President," the agency claimed.
The rule proposal comes as Republican presidential candidates promise to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy — comprising more than 2.2 million employees, according to OPM — if they win the White House.
Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, promises to slash more than 1 million jobs and ultimately 75% of the federal workforce over four years, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will begin cutting jobs on day one of his presidency.
Anything else?
According to FedSmith, the "OPM proposal is obviously about politics and political power." Indeed, poorly performing civil employees are notoriously difficult to demote or terminate. Moreover, civil service employees are supposed to be nonpartisan, but there is a strong perception that a significant number are not.
Should it be difficult to remove overly partisan career employees? That's a question that remains open for debate. But make no doubt about it: the Biden administration is working hard to ensure that partisan and poorly performing employees remain difficult to remove.
Nonsense.
Because. Vivek.
I would think that any president shown to be “on the take” from our enemies would have every thing that he signed immediately rolled back.
Self explanatory problem.
“Surely, any rule made unilaterally by the Regine can be undone just the same.”
Yes. Although as we have seen, the Courts will attempt to make Democrat executive orders permanent.
Fortunately, the Dems tried to enact legislation to prevent Schedule F but didn’t get it done.
Who says any republican wants to stop Gov growth???? Even the alltrump/allday crowd has to admit if he is elected he will outspend Biden - that’s his nature. Biggly
unless the Democrats approve them, there will be no more Republican Presidents elected. The Coup of 2020 assured that. In the elections of 2020 the Democrats tightened their control. And in the elections of 2024 they will continue their control of the voting process.
If we had a judiciary that wasn’t politicized I’d agree. What’s the point of Presidential elections if one can tie the hands of those that come after them?
Cannot argue a bit with what you wrote. All true.
I’m not so sure we’ll be able to shoot our way out of it either.
Bingo. The ballot box is no longer an option.
BS article. Says they are hired on a merit based system.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Classify each of the 12 cabinet depts 1-5 in order of national need.
Questions can be asked. Can the private sector do it? Should the government be doing it? Is it in the original Constitution? Can they be reduced without harm to the country?
Classify each of the sub-depts 1-10 in order of national need.
Classify each of the sub-sections of the sub-depts 1-10 in order of national need.
Departments that have proven hostile to the citizens of the country lose points.
Eliminate buildings full of people, starting with the lowest score.
The new President can direct entire federal departments be moved to other parts of the country and make mandatory federal employees ACTUALLY show up to work in buildings housing their departments.
Since most are not NOW actually going to work at their existing government buildings, they cannot argue a relocation is a hardship on their existing commute.
Many of the government employees were likely involved in giving aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States. That deserves indictments, trials, convictions, and sentencing.
LOL. As if the Republicans give a rat’s ass about limiting the size of government.
We no longer have in us shoot our way out. if we were going to shoot our way out it would have happened in the Coup of 2020.
Federal employees are a malignant cancer in the Nations body...
Most GOP candidates, since 1954, promise to get the size of government under control...
Unmitigated BS... No GOP president has accomplished anything...
Reagan started, dumping the flight controllers, a major communist-controlled group... But never finished...
There was only one person, since WWII who offered to take significant steps when he was among those considered for the Sec DOD: A carefully conceived 75% reduction in the size of the Pentagon...
OTOH, the old-line (now defunct) Democrat Party and the current American-Communist Party now occupying the WH have always campaigned promising increases in the federal workforce and senseless programs to keep them occupied and the taxpayers under economic control...
So, for the past 65 years, the GOP continues its perpetual circle jerk and the communists hang more & more shackles on the serfs...
Relocate the departments. Move Bureau of Land Management to Montana, Move the FBI to some central location like western Kansas, and so on.
Can’t fire them? Well, just assign them to the new satellite federal office in Utqiagvik, Alaska. I’m sure they will be happy there.
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