'There's no easy button here': Ex-Trump official pours cold water on disruption plans
According to a former official in Donald Trump's first administration, a plan by the president-elect to purge thousands of civil servants in a supposed effort trim down the cost of government is easier said than done.
In an interview with Anna Kramer of NOTUS, the former director of the first Trump administration’s Federal Salary Council took aim at plans by the incoming administration to follow through on proposals from what is known as "Schedule F" which would allow employees to be made political appointees and thereby easier to fire.
According to Ronald Sanders, who stepped down in protest when the topic came up during Trump's first term, he sees little path for the initiative to be a success on multiple levels.
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“My conversation with White House led me to conclude that Schedule F was going to be used to put loyalists in place, and used not just to achieve policy alignment,” he stated, explaining why he walked away previously.
Now, with Trump getting a second bite at the apple, he sees little has changed.
"There’s no easy button here. There are limited ways to reduce large numbers, and they both have consequences,” he explained with Jenny Mattingley, a former White House and Office of Management and Budget staffer, agreeing.
“You are just expanding the number of political appointments out there. They tend to turn over, come and go every four years. That level of turnover makes it really hard to keep efficient or effective services going,” Mattingley observed before adding, "People are talking about reform at a very broad level and in a way that will have negative impacts on how the federal workforce can deliver for the public.”
Calling Schedule F nothing more than a "loyalty test," Jennifer Pahlka, a former Obama administration official, explained, "In order to have a healthy civil service that enables a government that can do what it says it’s going to do, you need to be able to hire the right people and fire the wrong ones. And we don’t actually have that today."
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