Oversight Democrats Condemn Trump “Government for Sale” Plans to Corrupt Federal Workforce

Washington, D.C. (May 23, 2024)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led Committee Democrats in supporting the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) efforts to maintain a nonpartisan, expert federal workforce following unprecedented actions by the Trump Administration to undermine science and the merit-based civil service.

“OPM oversees the nonpartisan workforce which takes an oath to the Constitution, not to a President, not to a King, not to any individual but rather to the Constitution and the country,” said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening statement.  “From the beginning of his time in office, the last President made it clear his desire to strip the federal workforce of experts and replace them with loyalists.” 

The hearing included testimony from Rob Shriver, Acting Director of OPM.

Committee Democrats discussed how the Trump Administration worked to destroy the nonpartisan, expert federal workforce with “Government for Sale” policies that threaten Americans’ safety and security.

• Speaking about the Trump Administration’s moves to fire federal experts and replace them with loyalists, which Trump has promised to revive in a second term, Rep. Summer Lee said:  “Trump has touted a plan to remove the guardrails that protect federal workers from partisan retaliation if they speak truth or evidence to power.  Trump’s plan to remove worker protections would put in jeopardy the careers of tens of thousands of scientists, engineers, contracting officials, weather experts, disaster recover experts, and all the others who help communities recover from disasters.” 
   
• Expanding on Trump’s plans to strip federal workers of protections against arbitrary or political firing, Rep. Greg Casar said:  “At the core, these civil service jobs are normal jobs staffed by normal people—the folks you see at the grocery store, not the politicians that you see on TV.  Yet, we see that the Trump and MAGA agenda is to fire thousands, if not tens of thousands of these folks just because that agenda and objective analysis often do not mix.  Federal workers make sure that the government works for the people, not for any given president, because the responsibility of being a civil servant is telling political leaders when their ideas violate the law, or even violate the Constitution, or when science and evidence don’t line up with certain political opinions.” 
   
• Highlighting how a nonpartisan civil service is essential to public safety, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost noted that firearms and homicide—often involving a gun—are now the leading causes of death for children and pregnant people, respectively, and said:  “The Biden Administration created the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.  I’m worried about what a potential President Trump would do to these sort of offices, whether taking them apart and removing the evidence-based work that’s going on or installing political goons that don’t care about science and evidence-based work that experts know that we need to do.  We need a government focused on improving the lives of children, those who are pregnant, and everybody else facing the gun violence crisis, and for that we need an expert, nonpartisan federal workforce vested in the authority to follow science and evidence.” 

Committee Democrats examined the serious threats that a revival of Trump’s “Government for Sale” policies would pose to their communities and constituents.

• After describing the critical role that Environmental Protection Agency employees play trying to provide clean air and water for her communities, she said, Rep. Rashida Tlaib explained:  “For many of my residents at home, this is a life and death situation.  For us, we can’t allow, no matter who’s the president of the United States, to use that office for political motivation to attack many of the federal employees that act in a very nonpartisan way.
   
• When Mr. Shriver agreed that Trump’s policies could revert the United States to a system in which federal employees could prioritize federal benefits and assistance based on party affiliation and loyalty to the president, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly pointed out, “The spoil system—political appointees in what are now civil service jobs—became so polluted, so corrupt, and so tainted that they weren’t primarily serving the American people, they were primarily serving their political patron.” 
   
• When Rep. Kweisi Mfume asked how recruitment and retention would be affected by Trump’s plans to corrupt the federal workforce, Mr. Shriver explained:  “If we were to send a message to the public that you no longer are prioritized in the federal government based on the skills, abilities, knowledge that you have, but instead that you’re going to be valued based on some other non-merit factor, I think that the human capital challenges that the federal government already faces would be dramatically exacerbated.”

Committee Democrats contrasted Trump’s plans to dismantle the federal government and corrupt the federal workforce with the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to strengthen the federal workforce to best serve the American people.

• When Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton asked about OPM’s April 2024 rule to help stave off any future attempts to corrupt the nonpartisan federal workforce, Mr. Shriver said:  “There is a long history in this country, going back 140 years, to preserving a nonpartisan career civil service that is critical to trust in government, to the American people being able to feel confident that the information they’re receiving from their government comes from the experts.  The regulation was important in order to clarify what those procedures are and what those protections are in light of some changes—mainly schedule F—that the prior administration attempted to implement.”
   
• In response to a question from Rep. Shontel Brown about the value of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) to federal agencies, Mr. Shriver said:  “I think the business case is closed—in order for organizations to maximize their performance and effectiveness, they need to pay attention to DEIA.  That’s why we have emphasized removing barriers to federal employment opportunities by doing things like requiring internships to be paid, by improving pay for blue collar workers and instituting a $15-an-hour minimum wage, by hiring people based on the skills they have and not imposing unnecessary degree requirements, by conducting barrier analyses, by launching the first ever military-connected strategic plan so we can get more military spouses into government.  Those are the actions we’re taking.” 
   
• Emphasizing OPM’s efforts to advance the government’s ability to recruit early-career talent, Mr. Shriver said:  “OPM has issued a final rule on the Pathways Programs, designed to significantly expand opportunities for early-career talent in the federal government.  This is one of the most significant actions the federal government has taken since the Program’s inception 14 years ago to help federal agencies recruit early-career talent.”
   
• Rep. Jared Moskowitz corrected Republican misinformation with data showing that federal government use of telework has largely tracked with—and recently fallen below—private sector use.  Mr. Shriver agreed and added, “Our North Star is providing the best service to the American people, and we need to make sure that work arrangements like telework are advancing that.  And I think that they are.”