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When former congressman Newt Gingrich—now an advisor to presidential candidate Donald Trump—said that he is strongly encouraging Trump to end “lifetime tenure for federal employees,” National President Tony Reardon fired back.
Gingrich made his comments in the New Yorker magazine. Reardon was asked about the comments by the Huffington Post. Here is what the New Yorker reported:
“Trump has relied heavily on the ideas of seasoned combatants. Newt Gingrich, who, as House Speaker in the nineties, pioneered many of the tactics that have come to define partisan warfare, is now a Trump adviser. Gingrich told me that he is urging Trump to give priority to an obscure but contentious conservative issue—ending lifetime tenure for federal employees. This would also galvanize Republicans and help mend rifts in the Party after a bitter election.
“Getting permission to fire corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest workers—that’s the absolute showdown,” Gingrich said. He assumes that federal employees’ unions would resist, thus producing, in his words, an “ongoing war” similar to the conflict that engulfed Madison, Wisconsin, in 2011, when Governor Scott Walker moved to limit public-sector employees’ collective-bargaining rights. After five months of protests, and a failed effort to recall the Governor and members of the state senate, Walker largely prevailed. Gingrich predicts that that chaotic dynamic can be brought to Washington. “You have to end the civil-service permanent employment,” he said. “You start changing that and the public-employee unions will just come unglued.”
Clearly Gingrich, despite his long service as a member of Congress and former House Speaker, either doesn’t understand civil service law or is willing to say anything to advance an agenda.
Here is what Reardon told the Huffington Post in response:
“The idea that federal employees can’t be fired is simply not true. This is a false statement repeated to gain easy political points. Under federal civil service law, federal employees can be fired for cause. There are processes in place that provide due process and protect employees from politically-motivated personnel decisions. While it is not clear that Congressman Gingrich and Mr. Trump are trying to find a way to fire those they simply don’t like, it would behoove them to become educated on the basics of civil service law. Federal employees give much to this country and deserve at least candidates and advisors who understand a little bit about how their employment works.”
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