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Monday, February 05, 2018

Trump’s shot heard round the civil-service world

Calls for agency authority to 'remove federal employees who undermine the public trust'

Pencil pushers. Desk jockeys. There are a lot of names for the bureaucrats who fill the offices of the federal government.

President Trump says they, and their work, need to be examined more closely.

He fired a major shot in the effort to enact civil service reform during his State of the Union address, creating what one leading workforce expert hopes will be an effort to root out the “intransigence and incompetence” from the federal workforce.

In his speech, Trump hailed the passage of legislation in 2017 that gave more authority for Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin to fire people failing to perform at levels needed to provide veterans the service they deserve. He then said that flexibility should be available to all cabinet secretaries.

“Tonight, I call on Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people,” said Trump.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagine if public servants who used the power of their office to abuse the public trust were removed across the board. Salisbury might prosper again. I can think of numerous other cities and towns, as well as states that would benefit.

Anonymous said...

I got a list over here in DC!

Anonymous said...

Those who are on the Federal Executive Pay Scale (well in excess of $100.000.00 per year) also receive bonuses from 5K to +25K for doing the job they are simply supposed to do.
Would a private business pay their top staff bonuses when they run up huge deficits each year?