Free Republic

Trump administration officials have put the Office of Personnel Management on the chopping block in an ambitious but controversial bid to reorganize the federal government -- and they are ready to furlough or even lay off workers if Congress stands in their way. According to an internal document obtained by The Washington Post, workers could be sent home on Oct. 1 and laid off 30 days later, if Congress will not agree to their plan to eliminate the agency -- which essentially serves as HR of the federal government. “This is a crisis building for years,” acting OPM Director Margaret...

The White House is moving to do what no president has accomplished since World War II: eliminate a major federal agency. If the Trump administration succeeds at dismantling the Office of Personnel Management, the closure could be a blueprint for shuttering other departments as it tries to shrink government. The agency would be pulled apart and its functions divided among three other departments. An executive order directing parts of the transition by the fall is in the final stages of review, administration officials said, with an announcement by President Trump likely by summer. OPM employees were briefed at a meeting...