However, this is the ridiculous extreme as far as solutions go.
From the linked bill.
(A) may be subject to any adverse personnel action (up to and including removal) for good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all; and
The bill as written would make it theoretically possible for a President, on Day 1, to fire all 2 million plus Executive Branch employees. Not just so called “bureaucrats”, mind you. EVERYBODY, down to the janitor.
It would also make it possible for a President to eliminate a disfavored Department or Agency, merely by firing all its employees and not replacing them.
I will make a counter-proposal.
I will ban union representation for any Federal Employee who holds Civil Service tenure protection.
I would limit appeals against a bad performance review to the manager immediately above the manager that issued the bad performance review. No appeal to the Merit System Protection Board or to the courts would be allowed. This has become a major problem, where bad employees continuously appeal and finally get bad performance reviews suppressed.
I would GREATLY streamline appeals to termination for cause, requiring the process to be complete with 90 days of the initial order terminating the employee. Employees would be permitted to appeal to:
(a.) The manager immediately above the manager issuing the termination.
(b.) The head of the Department or Agency.
(c.) The Merit Systems Protection Board.
Employees could be terminated for bad conduct, incompetency or deliberate obstruction of Executive Branch policymaking. However, it would be an affirmative defense that the proposed policy was in violation of Federal Law. Meaning a Federal Employee could not be fired for refusing an illegal order or refusing to commit an illegal act.
There is a clear problem with the Civil Service that needs fixing. Chip Roy goes way too far. My counter proposal solves the problem, but protects the basic structure of the Civil Service.
Wow…it’s about time. As so much came to light regarding the FBI and the DoJ and their behind the scenes shenanigans when Trump came into office…it was obvious “we” have a problem. If this bill isn’t the answer, it’s a good start and hopefully get the attention of those that consider themselves untouchable.
You don’t think leaving it the way it is would make it even easier to target conservatives for a Biden?
And Trump’s problems weren’t so much that he couldn’t get rid of the whole SES but that he couldn’t politically get rid of the ones he could have legally removed. Getting rid of the SES in the DOJ wasn’t Trump’s problem there. Picking a head of DOJ who immediately recused himself from anything related to Trump was the problem. And he likely couldn’t have immediately gotten a successor to Sessions through the Senate.
if you fire someone without cause, there is no reason given and they are “laid off” and entitled to benefits. if you fire them for cause the cause has to merit firing and they would be entitled to nothing. either way, they stay fired. if the “cause” listed is “i think he voted for the other guy” then the person doing the firing is a moron. while the person would stay fired, they would have a great civil case.
Yeah, let’s go back to the entire civil service being fired and replaced every time a different party takes over executive office. Y’know, like what happened before that was so ridiculous and extreme that it led to the creation of the professional civil service.
Conservatives have the best ideas for doing things we’ve already tried and that failed spectacularly.
