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.
To the salt mines ! Worthless.
i would transition all of these burrowers into permanent assignment in antartica, with mandatory air conditioning set to below freezing.
Burrowing in. Like a Tick.
Appropriate.
Yes you do.
0bama appointees, and all federal employees who voted for 0bama twice, must vacate their positions as of 20 Jan. 2017.
5.56mm
Buddy tried everything to get this guy's performance up, no dice. So, he went to *his* boss, looking to fire the guy. His boss's advice?
"It will be faster for you to go down to the deadbeat's cube, shoot him, do the time, and come back, than it will be to complete the firing process."
So, what did my buddy do? Foisted the deadbeat off on the next sucker manager that came in, just like had been done to him.
This is not new - been going on for years - affirmative action appointees came on board decades ago, got into civil service protected positions and waited to advance up the line as their seniors retired and they put in their time - we’ve got upper managers all over the government who have authority and power based primarily on who they knew and what the flavor of the year was - good luck to us.....
Yeah, I don’t think Trump would be slowed down very much at all.
The job might be guaranteed by the unions, but Trump will shift responsibility in a heart beat if they aren’t doing the job to his satisfaction.
Find them. Isolate them. Get rid of them any way you can. This is typical of political hacks appointed. They try to get into the public “service” roles. Bums and traitors.
Root them out, smoke them out, drive them out.
My buddy, who is ex-military, just can't get over how different it is from the military in that slugs, leeches, and troublemakers can't be gotten rid of unless they literally do physical violence to someone.
Amen to that.
And fire all the leftist appointed judges.
A thorough housecleaning needs to happen. No “Mr. Nice Guy” like Bush.
see, we would not have a glimmer of a chance this happens, if we had a uniparty bush, mcamnesty, grahamnesty, or romney running.
with a non career politician, non lawyer pro business guy, we have a chance some of this actually happens.
Typical unpatriotic government “worker”. These degenerate drones should be fired. How pathetic. What an absence of honesty and integrity.
"The word politics, as you may know, comes from the Latin poli, meaning many, and tics, meaning 'small blood-sucking creatures.'"
— Ken Fisher
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