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From the COVID tyrants in the CDC and NIH to the DHS officials unjustly punishing Border Patrol agents to the 87,000 new IRS agents targeting the middle class, three-letter federal agencies—and sadly, many of their employees—are no friends to the American people. Congress must do what it takes to end their long chain of abuses. That means reining in the federal bureaucracy to prevent new tyrants from emerging and to ensure those who acted against the American people face a reckoning.
Yet when news recently broke about the mere possibility of reviving former President Donald Trump's "Schedule F" executive order to hold federal employees accountable, the swamp went apoplectic.
Hysterical headlines decried the "plot to purge civil servants" and to "stack the civil service with loyalist hacks," "wreaking havoc on the government." One called it "authoritarianism 101." House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer released a statement condemning "Republican efforts to weaken protections for federal employees."
The truth is, it's past time for the protections that empower and shield underperforming and ill-willed employees to be weakened. We must strike at the root of this government tyranny imposed on Americans: the corrupt or inept federal employees burrowed in throughout the federal government.
Today, federal supervisors' hands are tied with enough red tape to make firing incompetent or ill-intentioned employees nearly impossible. Meanwhile, conscientious career workers and political appointees are forced to put up with insubordinate employees and do their jobs for them. The result? Rampant waste, inefficiency, and low morale.
This was especially obvious during the last administration, when entrenched career bureaucrats repeatedly hindered President Trump's agenda, facing few—if any—repercussions. Their actions sabotaged policies the American people voted for. When their conduct came to light, they hid behind bureaucratic procedures to evade consequences—further draining taxpayer resources.
This is about more than a former president, however. In practice, the idyllic image of apolitical bureaucrats expertly carrying out their duties has proven to be a fiction even with Trump out of office. Indeed, the FBI appears more focused on raiding his home and targeting parents as "domestic terrorists" than on going after cartels and gang members. Look at the CDC's collusion with Big Tech to censor criticism of vaccine mandates. Such are the signs of a civil service acting on political beliefs rather than faithfully executing will of the people, which is expressed in federal laws passed by Congress.
There needs to be accountability, and these bureaucrats need to be fireable.
In fact, we should make all executive branch bureaucrats at-will employees, allowing politically accountable appointees to swiftly address misconduct and remove underperforming employees. This will return the federal workforce to its original purpose: faithfully executing the laws for the American people.
That's why I have introduced a bill to put an end to all of it.
My Public Service Reform Act (H.R. 8550) would make all executive branch employees at-will, meaning they can face any adverse action, including removal, if they are not doing their job, provided the action is not a prohibited personnel practice such as racial discrimination. This would bring sanity and accountability to our federal workforce.
The federal government is not a jobs program. Federal employees could be fired for almost any cause until the Lloyd-La Follette Act of 1912, which prohibited unwarranted or arbitrary removals and established whistleblower protections. But, over 100 years later, the prudent, limited protections in that legislation have been stretched far beyond their intent into a gordian knot of byzantine regulations and procedures.
To fire employees, federal supervisors must navigate an unjustifiably complex and time-consuming process, conducting a lengthy formal investigation after giving employees 30 days advance notice. Employees can then appeal their removal multiple times through various internal and external boards and offices, further delaying the process on the taxpayers' dime. The overwhelming majority of these appeals are unsubstantiated.
For example, only 3 percent of whistleblower complaints are substantiated by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. And of the 15,911 discrimination complaints in fiscal year 2019, only 175 were substantiated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Even in instances of clear and egregious misconduct, such as employees stealing government funds, using illegal drugs, or committing sexual assault, federal agencies cannot immediately fire anyone. In fact, the Government Accountability Office has estimated it takes federal agencies between six months and a year to fire underperforming employees. And that's if they get fired at all.
In practice, the situation is even worse. Barely 25 percent of federal supervisors believe they could successfully remove an underperforming employee—even when that employee had already met the statutory criteria for removal. Seventy-eight percent of supervisors reported that previous efforts to remove such employees had no effect.
Consider just a few of these virtually unremovable bureaucrats: the Housing and Urban Development employee caught using his work email for private business deals, including arranging to have lap dancers at a party. The postal employee arrested for bringing cocaine into the workplace and smoking marijuana during her lunch break. The Environmental Protection Agency employee who spent years viewing the 7,000 pornographic videos he downloaded on his computer for two to six hours every workday—including when inspector general agents finally paid him a visit. Numerous other federal employees who ran personal businesses on government time, pawned thousands of dollars of agency equipment, or hired their family and friends for paid positions were able to dodge the pink slip. The only federal building these employees should occupy is a courthouse or jail.
Most federal employees want to serve their country; their good intentions and work ethic are frustrated by bad actors entrenched in the federal workforce and protected from removal.
The current federal workforce framework disincentivizes efficiency and, most importantly, public service. It rewards mediocrity and penalizes valuable career and political employees dedicated to their jobs. It desperately needs an ambitious reform, like my bill. It is high time we returned to a federal workforce that is accountable and that works for the American people.
Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican, represents Texas' 21st congressional district.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
