US president’s team intimidates to lay off staff if Congress doesn’t abolish the agency
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s cabinet is frightening to furlough or lay off up to 150 employees at the Office of Personnel Management if Congress does not accept to abolish the federal bureau or obtain a new way to pay for the positions.
Portions of Congress who resist the administration’s plan to destroy off OPM and move its functions hence called the plan an effort to threaten lawmakers and contend it is a mugging on federal workers’ rights.
“After realizing they were not going to prevail on the merits of the proposal, the Trump Administration is taking 150 federal employees hostage unless we consent to a plan that has no rationale,” said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va.
Connolly, he is a chair a government enforcement subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the agency, called the break-up layout “nothing more than a governmental gambit to give the White House charge of our longstanding merit-based civil service scheme.”
Trump administration executives said furloughs and likely layoffs may be required because the personnel agency is losing revenue after the change of one of its core functions: administering background checks on prospective federal representatives.
The fight over the personnel agencies is one of many budget battles that loom in the run-up to the November 2020 election.
When the president uncovered his 2020 budget in March, he named for deep cuts in an array of domestic presentations while also proposing billions for his border wall and greater military spending. But with the House commanded by Democrats, many of his offers are unpromising to convert as a law.
Trump organization officials said OPM, which commands more than 2 million constituents of the federal civilian workforce, is out-of-date and ineffective. The White House has called for assigning its duties – which range from booking and firing standards to maintaining benefits programs – to other parts of the government, especially the General Services Administration.
“We continue to work with Congress to find a solution and sustainable path forward that avoids unacceptable impacts to the staff at OPM,” stated Jacob Wood, a speaker for the Office of Management and Budget. “Accidentally, issues of funding and appropriations law leave OPM with few options.”
Noting that Congress itself voted to separate background checks from the office’s duties, Wood said that “it is our genuine faith that Congress attends us find a way to address the funding gap created by their judgment to move a significant funding source away from OPM.”
Trump administration officials declared the overall purpose is to excrete OPM, part of its suggested budget for the Fiscal Year 2020, is the first step in its effort to re-organize and streamline government. But the plan seems to face a difficult battle, given Democratic control of the House.
Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, announced at a congressional conversation this year that OPM has created “a national personnel system that does not meet present-day workforce needs” any longer.
“Failure to invest in and re-align HR organization, technology and operations have generated backlogs, service quality issues, cyber risks and problems hiring and retaining top talent,” she responded.
The Office of Personnel Management suffered bad publicity in 2015 with a data violation that displayed the hidden records of millions of public employees. Executives attributed the breach to Chinese hacking; China refused it.
