Trump Signs Executive Orders Tackling Civil Service Reform
People will protest and complain about a move that requires federal workers to actually work.
Friday, Trump signed three executive orders tackling civil service reform.
The bloated bureaucracy is fatally toxic, but any talk of civil service reform is always met with vitriol and apocalyptic prognostication.
Cue The New York Times:
Early NYT report is bereft of details, heavy on spin ("deconstruction of the administrative state," "assault on democracy," etc.) https://t.co/8UWRkSFziS
— Andrew M. Grossman (@andrewmgrossman) May 25, 2018
You can read the EOs here.
The Washington Examiner has the scoop:
President Trump signed three executive orders Friday containing sweeping reforms that weaken protections for federal workers and eliminate perks for the unions that represent them.
Under the new executive orders, estimated to save at least $100 million a year, unions will be charged rent for federal office space and will not be reimbursed for travel expenses or for hours spent appealing worker firings.
Going forward, federal workers must spend 75 percent of their time on government work — some currently spend none — and agencies must publicly post union contracts in an online repository.
People will protest and complain about a move that requires federal workers to actually work. So lackadaisical have some agencies become, that a bill was passed banning porn-watching on the job.
In 2015, the WaEx reported that a high-level EPA official was busted watching as much as six hours of porn at work, but they were unable to can him.
Despite the ban, federal employees are still watching exorbitant amounts of porn on the taxpayer dime.
And let us not forget the scandal-laden VA.
But back to the WaEx on the EOs:
Trump also ordered the termination of an Obama-era policy that says leniency for one worker sets a precedent protecting others from firing, and shortened review periods preceding discipline for poor-performing employees.
Although the changes make it easier for workers to get fired, White House officials said they expected largely positive response.
“Federal employees are sick and tired of having to carry the dead wood,” one official said on an afternoon conference call. “It should not take a year plus appeals to remove someone from the federal workforce.”
The orders also provide for the renegotiation of union contracts, officials said.
“These contracts make it harder to fire employees than the law requires,” a White House office said on the call.
An official said the orders will let Trump “come as close as he can to fulfill his vision” for civil service reform without legislation.
“Today the president is fulfilling his promise to promote more efficient government by reforming our civil service rules,” said Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Just Thursday, a Civil Service Reform Bill passed the Senate State Government Committee, though that legislation focuses more on streamlining the hiring process.
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Comments
Draining the swamp.
YES to dumping the deadbeats! MAGA.
Trump’s play is the obvious one – everybody nowadays hates Federal employees, except Federal employees. The more they attack him for making this move, the more his popularity among the voting population is going to rise.
What are the odds that these EOs will be enforced? I expect they are very low. Trump is doing what he can but the entire bureaucracy is against him.
IRV, I fully understand your pessimism, but would you agree that it can’t hurt?
Congress, once again, should be shamed for dropping the ball on a no-brainer.
Attrition accounts for five percent a year. That’s cumulative. Lots of people are not being replaced.
“…the entire bureaucracy is against him.”
No, the entire bureaucracy is against US. WE are Trump.
Never forget that.
Wow.
And people thought Kennedy announcing a program to put a man on the moon was a big deal. Easy-peasy compared to any attempt to deal with the federal bureaucracy. “Make America Productive Again”.
One more reason to re-elect President Trump in 2020. Another promise kept.
Regrets that you are only allowed 1 thumbs up per comment! You nailed it!
I shall make one last civil appeal to rags to drop his t-rump, moron, liar litany and join us in celebrating what history may well proclaim to be a great President.
Rags, although you undoubtedly hold the current record of thumbs-down on LI, there remains a forgiving attitude on this blog, which sincerely hopes for your redemption. Take it or leave it.
rags cannot help himself, the little person syndrome and all.
That, or Texas Loudmouth Syndrome.
… there remains a forgiving attitude on this blog, which sincerely hopes for your redemption.
Huh?
Wow, they only have to spend 75% of their work time working. Both working for others and owning my own businesses I worked far more than 75%. As am employee my time working was in the upper 90% range, and as an owner I worked 12-16 hour days. I always joked about the business owning me.
Once again, Trump is delivering, now all the need to do is change 75% to 95%.
I’ve known a couple of guys who had become UAW union stewards.
They no longer worked on the line after that. At all.
One seemed to suddenly have a lot of extra time and money to buy and renovate rental houses during the normal work week.
I’m willing to place a bet that some Federal judge, somewhere, will rule that requiring Gov’t employees to spend at least 75% of their time at work, actually working, is unconstitutional!
Killing the unions would be a big help.
JFKs EO allowing the unions to infest civil service needs to be rescinded.
I’ve always found FedSmith to be a fairly neutral (although leaning to the federal employee, of course) source of information. They had an article out on the EO before the EO was actually published, since they knew in general what it was going to say already. Sounds encouraging.
https://www.fedsmith.com/2018/05/25/restricting-federal-unions-firing-poor-performers/
The 54 national guards just got bombarded by Title 5 federal employees. Used to be an almost exclusive Title 32 dual status technician workforce with few exceptions. Dual status technicians are federal employees who must be a member of their state’s national guard, wear a uniform to work, and supervision chain stops at the Adjutant General of their state. They are in military drill status on drill weekend and federal employees during the week; usually doing the same job. Just in April, nearly 15% of the workforce was converted to Title 5 employee. Meaning you don’t have to be a member of the national guard anymore, don’t wear a uniform to work if you still are, and have to post those jobs nation wide to any US citizen to apply. The supervision chain goes all the way up to National Guard Bureau, a federal agency. The reason for the change is that John McCain is good friends with some big wig who runs the federal employees union. While T32 employees could unionize, many states didn’t have one and those that did were pretty weak as the jobs are “inherently military”. The unions wanted more power in the national guards and John McCain made it happen within the 2017 NDAA. Governors and Adjutants General just lost flexibility and some control over their military forces.
Most union official time and travel cost are enshrined in multiyear contracts. The funny thing about these contracts never expire. Not until a new one is inplace.
Ironic, considering the Trump is creating no work jobs for anyone who pledges allegiance to the Constitution, but not to him.
I am confident that Trump’s tally on my POTUS score card has now exceeded George W. Bush’s score. And Bush always pretended to be a conservative and Republican, Trump was the ostensible convert.
A small step in the right direction, but real progress must come from the feckless Congress.
Real progress would include a decision by the federal govt not to participate in collective bargaining, placing all the troughfeeders on a 401(k), placing them all on ObamaCare or other cheaper insurance.
And cutting their number in half so that the real work of figuring out how to cut them in half again could commence.
Just curious – Trump took credit for the fact that there were no commercial airline fatalities in 2017. Presumably that was because he was in charge of the federal workers who work with the airlines in many capacities.
There have been fatalities in 2018. Are those deaths on Trump? Would firing workers or gutting their benefits help save lives and get Trump back to the perfect record he took credit for in 2017?
“Are those deaths on Trump?”
No, commie grifter, most deaths are on you commies who murdered 100+ million in the last century.