Posted on 10/26/2019 3:06:15 PM PDT by mdittmar
Legislation from Sens. Blackburn and Howley is a solution in search of a problem, union president says
WASHINGTON American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. issued the following statement in response to legislation introduced by Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Josh Hawley that would relocate the headquarters of major federal agencies outside Washington, D.C.:
Eighty-five percent of federal employees already live outside the nations capital caring for veterans, supporting our military, processing Social Security and other federal benefits, and carrying out other vital work serving citizens across the country. It is neither cost-effective nor practical to relocate the headquarters of federal agencies away from Washington, where Congress is best equipped to hold political appointees and agency leaders accountable for their actions. This proposed legislation is a solution in search of a problem. Taxpayers would be better served by Congress ensuring federal agencies have the staffing and resources needed to carry out their vital missions.
Really. Well, they will shut down your government and then what will you do? /s/
We need subordinates to justify being promoted and we need more money. Hear that, Congress?
How many live in the national capital region, not just in the District of Columbia? 40%, 50%, 60%?
They absolutely embody this bizzare Federal teat paradigm -- 'If we're in DC, with our insane per diem, then no one will care when we sked our cjerks in Puerto Rico, Vegas, Phoenix, SanFran, and the one upcoming next month in Denver'.
My daughter lives in DC suburb. At least 60% of her neighbors are govt employees or retirees
Bring in new ones in an area not so proximal to the swamp
Get up,go to work and be happy these leeches aren’t sucking more money out of me.
Not the same group, but still applicable.
They can move also,lots of Country out there.
Our HQ is in DC but in the last three years nearly every new hire our division has brought in is staying where they are and working remotely. We’re scattered all over the country now.
I can understand the top agency folks being in DC because they need proximity to the hill, but us rank and file folks don’t need to be there.
There was a need and a reason for ‘centralized’ government offices, 100, 200, 500, 1,000 years ago. Making decisions from such huge distances was next to impossible, which is why representative government was born, and people that represented ‘local’ views and needs needed to be sent to a central location for decision-making.
We no longer have the same problems of centuries ago. We can make instant decisions, over the phone and internet and via radio and TV. And, people can travel all over the world in a matter of hours if bodily presence was required.
Thus, no need for a Washington DC or even state offices or city offices. Heck, even cities aren’t needed, since transportation is easier and quicker and communications can be used for instant decision-making on a local and national and international basis.
IOW, the way we are organized today, especially when it comes to governments, is way outdated.
“It is neither cost-effective nor practical to relocate the headquarters of federal agencies away from Washington, where Congress is best equipped to hold political appointees and agency leaders accountable for their actions.”
How ‘bout we just disband you.
Walmart’s hiring.
I’d take this proposal a little more seriously if Hawley and Blackburn weren’t proposing to move the Agriculture and Education Departments to their respective states.
Widely dispersed agencies are much harder to organize by a central labor representation agency, like the government union AFGE. It would be much harder to call strikes to shut down the Federal government, and by placing these agencies in places much closer to where they are called upon to perform their services, make the workload a little more equitable.
One of the criteria cited was to place these agencies in areas that are economically depressed, to share the wealth, so to speak. It would do much to relieve the local congestion in and around the DC area, and with modern communications capabilities, there should be no problems with carrying out all the tasks assigned to the agency, with far fewer distractions.
It’s an OK idea on one hand. On the other hand, we don’t want those people polluting decent parts of the country. Leave ‘em there
political appointees and agency leader who commit crimes can better be held accountable in locations where juries are less biased...
Moving is fine.
This is about more than Federal employees.
How many contractors, vendors, lobbyists, etc. live in metro DC because “their” .gov agency is there?
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