[Howlin]

How can that be done? You can't just go in there and FIRE career people. Congress says so.

[PhiKapMom]

If these people came on Civil Service at the end of the clinton era which it sounds like, they do not have career status (takes three years) and can be dismissed a lot easier as career conditional employees (former Civil Service here who helped get rid of an incompent employee -- took almost two years but we DID IT!). Undermining this Administration should get them terminated since they used flawed data in the report I believe to make this President look bad.

Or if they are in Senior Executive Service (SES) positions they serve at the pleasure of their boss -- Ms Whitman who I would believe is in trouble herself and could can them. I believe that normal Civil Service rules to not apply to SES positions! At least that is how I remember it when these SES positions were created. Some people who were GS-16's chose to stay GS-16's because they didn't want to take a chance on an SES.

The other day I stated that ms. Whitman might want to be looking around as this President NEVER forgets and this one from the EPA is a big foulup!