Trump administration threatens furloughs, layoffs if Congress doesn't let it kill personnel agency
Source: Washington Post
The Trump administration is threatening to furlough and possibly lay off 150 employees at the federal personnel agency if Congress blocks its plan to eliminate the department.
The Office of Personnel Management is preparing to send the career employees home without pay starting on Oct. 1, according to an internal briefing document obtained by The Washington Post. The employees could formally be laid off after 30 days, administration officials confirmed.
The warning of staff cuts is the administrations most dramatic move yet in an escalating jujitsu between Trump officials and Congress over the fate of the agency that manages the civilian federal workforce of 2.1 million.
Even as House Democrats and some Republicans signal that Congress is not going to break up the 5,565-employee department, the administration is moving forward in defiance. Trump appointees paint a dire picture of a corner of the government in financial free fall and failing to carry out its mission. They want a commitment from Congress by June 30 to agree to disband the agency or they say theyll be forced to trim staff.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-threatens-furloughs-layoffs-if-congress-doesnt-let-it-kill-personnel-agency/2019/06/19/b7200fda-9135-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html?utm_term=.20b727209602
machoneman
(3,951 posts)..why and where Trump and his evil minions can benefit by closing down this agency?
-does it allow Trump to bypass vetting even at lower levels to intsall his Kremlin-lovin' pals?
-how can he financially benefit? Selling jobs to the highest bidders?
-firing what he believes are all Democrats, Hillary lovers, etc.?
IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)considering how many of their political appointees failed to pass the background checks.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-clearances/top-secret-trumps-revamp-of-us-security-clearances-stumbling-officials-report-idUSKCN1TK127
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,433 posts)24601
(3,940 posts)to do with security clearances. The real issue is about control over civil service policies.
My 48th year of federal service starts early next month. About half of those included security clearance requests and revocations as well as suspension or reinstatement of access.
OPM does not grant security clearances for anyone not assigned to OPM. After an individual fills out their Standard Form 86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions), it goes to an investigating agency along with supplemental forms authorizing release of financial, medical and school records. OPM's role was to collect all the information needed to verify or refute what the individual submitted. This includes in-person neighborhood interviews where the most important question asked is, "Who else knows him?" While these long forms (up to 127 pages) include personal & professional references, the investigators presume we list people who are inclined to say nice things - and they want to reach the people we didn't list.
Well, anyway, OPM, or FBI or DSS - whomever has investigative responsibility - just collects & assembles the file and turns it over to the requesting Department, Agency, White House or Service. OPM is done at this point and has no meaningful participation adjudicating whether to grant a clearance. Some agencies, primarily CIA and NSA add their own polygraph and psych interview before it goes to the adjudicator. It is possible to pass the poly and fail the adjudication.
OPM conducted my last two periodic re-investigations (due every 5 years). In both cases, it was a contractor, not a government employee. Additionally, in 2014, hackers stole over 21 million of these these security clearance files from one of OPM's sub-contractors. Couple that with the 2018 theft of Equifax data (collected without our consent) produces a road map for targeting vulnerable individuals with access to highly-classified information.
Submariner
(12,482 posts)such as soliciting multiple bids for government work, with very specific engineering/administrative/environmental specifications, and selecting the most qualified bidder, even if it is not the lowest bidder.
It sounds like a Trumpian move to give the government and its duties away to private contractors. This is some kind of high level corruption planning.
MadLinguist
(781 posts)An organization that spans all federal government agencies, as the OPM does, provides more oversight and transparency than the shit-bags can tolerate. Things like salary ranges, and personnel rights, and laws that apply to governmental agencies bother people in the oligarchic class
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)person holding office. Way back in Arkansas, the teachers, highway workers, office workers, really everyone owed their allegiance to the Democratic Party and to the governor who ran it. They always seemed to know how the people voted. It was a long time before the state and most states became 2 party states.
Maybe that is what they are trying to bring back.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)you've got a job. If you are loyal to the USA and to TRUTH, you are tossed into the republican shitcan. Only blind submissive republican toadies get jobs.
KPN
(15,585 posts)Edcit: googled -- apparently this is part of tRump's 2016 campaign promise to "cut so much your head will spin". True story.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Whats this all about? Trump getting more power and control. Heres how it works.
OPM, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the federal government. Within the OPM is housed a semi- autonomous agency called The National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) The NBIB is responsible for conducting security clearance investigations into individuals who need to hold security clearances for employment purposes in the federal government. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Background_Investigations_Bureau
https://www.opm.gov/Forms/pdf_fill/SF86.pdf
OPM had the whistle blower that went to Congress who said that 25 Trump WH employees were denied clearances, including Kushner and Bolton But was overruled by Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/politics/tricia-newbold-whistle-blower-white-house.html
Now Trump just placed an EO #13467 that effectively transfers the security clearance responsibility form the NBIB to the Department of Defense which directly reports to Trump. There will be no transparency and no whistleblowers.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-transferring-responsibility-background-investigations-department-defense/
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,063 posts)Dole jobs out in return for political favors.
moonseller66
(430 posts)Make no mistake. This isn't trump's doing. Really, he isn't bright enough to have figured how to do this on his own.
We need to concentrate on the real power(s) behind trump...and I don't mean Vlad.
The real American Terrorists don't wear camo. They wear many thousand dollar suits, get driven and flown wherever they wish, raise prices to add to their own and their investor's greed and screw American workers out of any kind of dream.
CEO = Corrupt Economic Opportunist
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)these machinations would totally escape him, even if he studied up on them...and all the cabinet positions?? No way he knew who these scumbags were before he was told to appoint them, no way
Now, I tend to think theres indeed a little Vlad influence going on, but as you say, its the $$$$$$ CEOs yanking the strings here - and they may or may not all be citizens of the US, eh?
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Talitha
(6,476 posts)To find out who's masterminding things, follow the money.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)Can Congress authorize? He and his minions are trying to destroy all the institutions. It's been pretty clear and continues unabated. Largely not even called out by most of MSM. He loves chaos and his team is bringing it. Dems are in hurry-up defense all day long and it's not enough to even marginally keep up.