Tag: MERIT Act

Commentary: President Trump Strikes Back Against Rogue Bureaucrats

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The President should be able to trust the advice he is given by senior bureaucrats, and he should be able to trust that his orders will be executed. Unfortunately for President Trump and his supporters, this has not been the case. To address this problem, Trump has taken a number of steps, including firing a number of his staffers. Recently, President Trump issued an executive order creating a new class of senior bureaucrats who can be hired and fired more easily.

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Merit Systems Protection Board Shows Why Civil Service Is Badly in Need of Reform

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by John York   The Senate’s failure to consider President Donald Trump’s appointees is affecting more than just the federal judiciary. That abdication of responsibility has now left one agency – the Merit Systems Protection Board – with no political appointees at all. Few people outside of Washington, D.C., have even heard of the Merit Systems Protection Board, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t doing important work. The three-member board is responsible for hearing appeals related to the firing and serious punishment of federal employees. Yet, it was left totally vacant when the last remaining board member’s term expired at the end of February. The board has been in bad shape for longer, though. Since January 2017, it had been down to one member – meaning it could not decide any appeals since two board members are needed to form a quorum. There are now nearly 2,000 appeals waiting in the queue to be heard. Reaction to the Merit Systems Protection Board’s incapacity has been mixed. While The Washington Post warned of the “dire consequences” of “eliminating the guardian of our merit system,” some conservatives have questioned if the board is necessary at all. Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste,…

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PROOF: Trio of Project Veritas Videos Expose Unaccountable Federal Government Employees Pushing a Soclialist Agenda From Within the Administrative State

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By Natalia Castro   When federal bureaucrats are unaccountable to even their own managers, it can be hard to identify and correct abuse within the system. In his most recent undercover expose, James O’Keefe sought to uncover the stories of the federal government’s worst employees directly from the source. This week, Project Veritas released three videos highlighting rampant misuse of federal resources by employees for political gain. All stories have a similar thread: the employees believe they can never be fired. And they are not completely wrong, current law makes their removal extremely different despite clear evidence of abuse. O’Keefe’s team of investigative journalists went undercover speaking with federal government employees who are also active members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), an organization dedicated to ridding the country of capitalism — the economic system responsible for freeing and uplifting millions around the world from poverty — and replacing it with socialism (also known as the economic system responsible for killing millions of people in the last century and continuing to leave Venezuelans starving and penniless). In the first Project Veritas video, Stuart Karaffa, a Department of State employee explained how he spends his day working, “I have nothing to lose. It’s impossible to fire federal employees… I’m…

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Report: Abuse and Inefficiency Rampant within U.S. Civil Service

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FEMA trailers

by Natalia Castro   Introduction Corey Coleman spent years creating a toxic work environment on the taxpayer’s dime. Despite receiving complaints regarding Coleman’s hostility toward female employees and inappropriate behavior since 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintained Coleman’s employment until he chose to resign in April 2018. Coleman, who led the agency’s personnel department, made the decision to resign to avoid testifying as part of an internal investigation. [1] While this is one instance of abuse, stories like Coleman’s permeate the U.S. civil service industry. Our civil service is comprised of over 2.79 million employees working to run the “fourth arm” of the U.S. government: the bureaucracy. [2] Career bureaucrats implement federal policy via central offices in Washington, D.C. and regional offices across the country. As an unelected body, these workers are not accountable to the American people and due to the structure of our civil service are seemingly unaccountable to anyone. This system encourages poor performance, breeding corruption, waste, and abuse. Historical context The bureaucracy was created to implement the laws as written by Congress, but since its establishment government leaders have feared that a partisan civil service would serve its own interests rather than the interests…

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MERIT Act Passes Out of Committee, Proceeds to House Floor

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Barry Loudermilk

By Natalia Castro   The MERIT Act is finally moving forward. After a passing vote in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the MERIT Act will be moving onto the House floor in the coming weeks for a vote. Congress can take a major step in answering the people’s calls to “drain the swamp” by moving forward with this legislation. The only way to drain the swamp is to fire the swamp, and the MERIT Act will empower managers to remove poor performing employees that are preventing our bureaucracy from working for the people. When Georgia Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk introduced the Modern Employment Reform, Improvement, and Transformation Act of 2017 (MERIT Act) it was attacked by unions who maintain an unabridged desire to protect employees from any form of repercussions for their actions. It makes sense unions are scared. Thanks to union litigation, the federal government termination rate, including layoffs and firings, is a mere 3.37 percent, compared to a private-sector termination rate of over 17 percent. Unions have made the firing process for poor performing employees timely and complex, causing managers to prefer transferring poor performing employees rather than going through the process to dismiss them. But moving an employee does not remove the problem.…

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The MERIT Act Brings Much-Needed Civil Service Reformation to a Government Bureaucracy Run Amok

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By Natalia Castro   Just three years ago, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) was one of the most scandal-ridden agencies in the federal government. Today, the VA is working efficiently and effectively to follow through on their mission of caring for our nation’s veterans. The difference is simple, an administration invested in draining the swamp came together with a Congress willing to dismantle wasteful bureaucracies and finally hold employees accountable for their actions. Now, other agencies are ready to do the same, and they must restore American trust in the system. Nearly four years ago, the VA was known for two things: harboring corrupt employees and providing veterans with inadequate care. Under the Obama Administration, long wait times left veterans without care for months on end. A Government Accountability Office report from April 2016 found mismanagement and disorganization amongst VA employees caused new veterans to wait three to eight weeks for medical care; many patients failed to receive any care at all. Despite this, a bureaucratic system which rewards longevity rather than efficiency, allowed the problems to persist. John Cooper, a spokesman for Concerned Veterans for America, told the Washington Times of April 2016, “It has taken the VA two years to propose firing…

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