Read the EO again, please. The problem until now is that many federal employees whose jobs involve interpreting, making, or pushing public policy are in the competitive service with the merit system protections that affords.
Everybody loves to talk about the Pendleton Act and ending the spoils system when the merit system was established around the turn of the last century, but nobody ever talks about OPM's regulatory rulemaking which bypassed Congress and went into high gear to stack the deck in favor of federal employees' job security during FDR's New Deal overreach.
I agree that the average federal employee should be protected from being fired and replaced whenever the White House changes hands. Ask Hitlery about how she had to invent embezzlement charges against Billy Dale to get him out of the way so she could give POTUS travel business to her Hollyweird friends.
That said, there is no reason why a federal employee whose job involves policy—who is therefore a political employee—should enjoy protections that non-political employees have. Those misapplied protections allow assholes to subvert the policy preferences of their boss, POTUS, as I have watched in rage since GEOTUS's inauguration.
Reclassify these jobs under the new schedule, and it is up to the federal employee to take the job or not with the understanding that he will serve at the pleasure of the POTUS.
I agree that the average federal employee should be protected from being fired and replaced whenever the White House changes hands.
I don't. When in the private sector, if your company many gets sold or merges or undergoes downsizing or any of a myriad of changes, you aren't afforded employee for life status, so neither should they be.
Seriously, except for higher ups, how often does someone go from public sector to private sector? Never. It never happens, and it should happen at least as frequently as 4.3 years, to match private sector employer changes.
Read the EO again, please. The problem until now is that many federal employees whose jobs involve interpreting, making, or pushing public policy are in the competitive service with the merit system protections that affords.
Everybody loves to talk about the Pendleton Act and ending the spoils system when the merit system was established around the turn of the last century, but nobody ever talks about OPM's regulatory rulemaking which bypassed Congress and went into high gear to stack the deck in favor of federal employees' job security during FDR's New Deal overreach.
I agree that the average federal employee should be protected from being fired and replaced whenever the White House changes hands. Ask Hitlery about how she had to invent embezzlement charges against Billy Dale to get him out of the way so she could give POTUS travel business to her Hollyweird friends.
That said, there is no reason why a federal employee whose job involves policy—who is therefore a political employee—should enjoy protections that non-political employees have. Those misapplied protections allow assholes to subvert the policy preferences of their boss, POTUS, as I have watched in rage since GEOTUS's inauguration.
Reclassify these jobs under the new schedule, and it is up to the federal employee to take the job or not with the understanding that he will serve at the pleasure of the POTUS.
I don't. When in the private sector, if your company many gets sold or merges or undergoes downsizing or any of a myriad of changes, you aren't afforded employee for life status, so neither should they be.
Seriously, except for higher ups, how often does someone go from public sector to private sector? Never. It never happens, and it should happen at least as frequently as 4.3 years, to match private sector employer changes.