Posted on 10/03/2016 11:16:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
As we prepare to enter into the presidential transition period there is one pressing question on the mind of some government employees: will I stay or will I go? (With all due apologies to The Clash.) For most federal workers the change in management won’t have much effect. They are hired through normal channels and have powerful unions to ensure they stay there for as long as they like. But a second class of government employees consists of those who are appointed by the current administration. They generally don’t enjoy the same level of protection and are often replaced when the new broom sweeps clean.
That doesn’t apply to everyone, though. As the Daily Caller highlighted last week, more than a dozen of these appointees from the Obama administration have quietly made the switch, jumping to the head of the line past those who apply for jobs through the normal application and review process and are preparing to settle in.
Seventeen political Obama appointments across eight different agencies converted to career positions without receiving the required Office of Personnel Management (OPM) approval.
After President Obama leaves the White House on Jan. 20, 2017, over 4,000 of his political appointees also vacate their government offices as well. Federal employees prepare for new administrations by converting some of the outgoing White House’s political appointees to permanent career civil servants.
According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had the most unapproved political to career conversions with six, followed by Health and Human Services (HHS) with three, and the Department of Energy (DOE) with two.
These conversions aren’t illegal so to speak, but they do require prior approval from the Office of Personnel Management. As part of that process you’re supposed to be able to demonstrate why the individual is relatively indispensable compared to some other routine applicant or how the agency’s mission would be harmed by losing them. In this case, the agencies are defending the decisions by saying that personnel had trouble understanding OPM’s policy for the approval process.
I don’t know about you, but if they can’t even understand the job transfer process it sounds to me like they’re either not all that indispensable or your process if badly in need of reform.
This isn’t an unknown “feature” of executive branch traditions, however. It’s a process the feds refer to as “burrowing in” and as Government Executive explains today, it’s not happening on a massive scale, but in one quarter of instances reviewed the required approval was not obtained.
Just 69 appointees “burrowed in” to their agency from Jan. 1, 2010, to Oct. 1 , 2015, from the 32 federal agencies the Government Accountability Office audited. Most were Schedule C — excepted service, appointed workers who serve at the pleasure of the agency head — and non-career Senior Executive Service employees.
Seventeen of the burrowers did not receive approval from the Office of Personnel Management, GAO found, as is required by law. OPM completed post-appointment reviews for 13 of those cases in which the agency did not notify it of the conversion, and denied the switch in four instances. In four cases it did not review, OPM said the employees were no longer in government.
There’s a reason that the new broom sweeps clean and we should demand a bit more accountability from the White House during the transition. Granted, it’s not a huge number of positions, but given where they are working these conversions definitely merit a closer look. Several of them took place in the Department of Homeland Security (which oversees border control) and the Department of Energy, which works hand in hand with other groups on regulatory issues. These are all of concern to conservatives and we don’t need a bunch of Obama appointees hanging around if there’s no reason that they can’t be replaced with workers who are hired through the normal process, or at least by fresh appointees of the new administration.
FIFO: `first in, first out’ Like lice, the parasites abandon the dying host.
The parasites must know that Trump has honed the art of firing deadheads.
Trump’s first mission as Prez should be he fires EVERY ONE of the Kenyan’s spies.
I guess some folks don’t believe the media polls showing Hillary in the lead. :-)
Trump’s favorite line is: “You’re fired.”
He should keep in practice saying it!
“Beth, I got some bad news for you. And a lot of people.
You remember that Lerner character, right? OK, here we go ... “
https://www.opm.gov/about-us/our-director/
Purge the Mandarin class.
• Retask them all as baristas in the coffee shops in different agencies' state-level support offices in North Dakota and Alabama.
• Offer ZERO advancement with the credentials they currently hold.
• Revoke every security clearance and preserve all government electronic communications.
• Have them surrender all government issued communications devices intact and in working order or be subject to charges for destruction of government property.
They're politicians and associates sucking your tax dollars.
“Kill entire alphabet agencies.”
Its the only way we, as a nation, will survive.
Unfortunately, Trump inherited a massive debt that leaves him no choice. He could say something like it ‘saddens him to have to do this’ :)
Lois Lerner has retired with her $102,600 a year pension...paid for by you.
BTW....she's still laughing at you about that little IRS thing targeting conservatives.
When Trump gets elected and takes office, these bastards will be rooted out and disposed of like ticks on a hound!!
As they should be.
I have a cousin who was a DC career guy. Worked in the Dept of Labor. Retired now. Bragged about retiring a year early and getting paid for it by cheating. Filled out paperwork saying he worked an extra year in another state.
When Reagan was elected I asked him if he was worried. He laughed. “Presidents come and go, but we are here until we retire, he said.”
No exeptions
For a start, make all government employees learn and know COTUS by heart, have a U.S. flag in every room, and start each and every day with the Pledge of Allegience.
No exceptions
The government bureaucracy is and has long been a place for rodents/moles to be burrowed in for years and years, quietly doing their political work/sabotage from one Administration to the next, does not matter who’s sitting in the Oval Office.
Reconciliation Commision. Let them know they have two weeks to turn themselves in, name their accomplices in full confessions to avoid prosecution and prison. Watch the stampede. The Rats won’t be able to get to a microphone fast enough and will be tearing each other apart to get there.
Added bonus, their days of “gummint service” are over. The Rats will have to start with an entirely new team brought up from “the minors”. Zero’s legacy will be the generation it takes the Rats to recover from the damage he has done TO THEM.
In my dreams, anyway.
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