Washington Post: Trump administration plans to dismantle agency overseeing civil service

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Washington (CNN)The Trump administration is planning to dismantle the Office of Personnel Management, a decades-old federal agency that oversees the federal government's civil service, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The paper said the agency "would be pulled apart and its functions divided among three other departments." Citing conversations with unnamed administration officials, the Post reported that an executive order "directing parts of the transition by the fall is in the final stages of review" and that President Donald Trump will "likely" make an announcement on the plan in the coming months.

According to the paper, the agency's 5,565 employees were briefed on the plan in March.

The Post said the White House "is short on details" of the plan, but noted that it plans to break apart the agency "in several stages, with some steps beginning now and other changes delayed pending congressional approval." It also said officials "were not able to estimate the short- or long-term savings" of the agency's closure. According to the paper, OPM's annual budget is $2.1 billion.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/office-of-personnel-management-trump-administration/index.html

Civil service was set up to prevent the spoils system AKA cronyism. It used to be government jobs were doled out to the buddies of whoever was in office as a way of returning favor. All too often those people weren't qualified.

[elleng]

1. Their long-term goal to 'drown it in a bathtub,' 'drain the swamp' is showing progress,

and we're all screwed.

[at140]

4. Or..rearranging deck chairs on Titanic

After hitting a massive iceberg.

[KT2000]

2. investigations for security clearances

and questions about felonies will probably be eliminated as well.

[Ilsa]

3. Trump thinks government jobs should be based on cronyism,

not professional merit. It'll take decades to reverse the crap trump is doing to government.

[MadDAsHell]

8. As a current state employee, I can tell you they're not based on merit now.

Advancement and pay in my work place are based exclusively on seniority. You cannot "merit" your way into any type of promotion or pay increase, it is based entirely on your ability to outlast your coworkers in terms of service time.

Merit-based government work hasn't existed for decades.

[Ilsa]

9. Thanks. nt

[pnwmom]

10. Systems based on seniority are better than those based on cronyism.

[MadDAsHell]

11. I'm not making a judgment on systems. I'm simply clarifying that merit-based doesn't exist now. nt

[Drahthaardogs]

12. It doesn't in private industry either to a degree

There are always the "in" crowd that get rewarded for work they have not accomplished. It's just the way it is.

[Horse with no Name]

16. Also a state employee and the joke is if you can get through the

First 5 years...they can’t touch you.
Sad though for those of us who have to work with and around the dead weight.

[JHB]

15. That Republicans are doing to the government...

He couldn't do any of what he's doing without the active support, compliance, and/or acquiescence of Republicans in congress and around the nation.

The long-lost paradise for Movement Conservatives is the Gilded Age, precisely when crony appointments for government jobs was the norm.

[Takket]

5. hard to believe a guy that made his daughter and SIL senior advisors would get behind that plan

[gratuitous]

6. Oh I'll bet this plan is short on details

OPM is the agency that protects civil service workers' rights from cronyism, which makes it the sworn enemy of all that Trump stands for. Carving up OPM will not result in any savings at all (and it's not like the money's coming out of Trump's pocket, but that's how he pouts about it), but will result in a more inefficient bureaucracy, more susceptible to corruption and ethics violations.

[elleng]

7. He cares not one whit about details.

[Mc Mike]

13. Trying to wipe out civil service employee protections.

[DeminPennswoods]

14. OPM is mainly administrative

handling things like SF52s, W2s, 1099s, benefits, insurance, etc. I really don't why it makes sense not to have all those things together, but it probably won't make much difference if they aren't.

The civil service system is law. That can't be changed by some EO.