Congresman Moran's News Commentary

Last week, the Bush Administration dropped a bombshell on federal employees. It has come to light that the administration is considering extending the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense's (DOD) personnel rules for the way employees are paid, promoted and disciplined throughout the rest of the federal agencies.

These changes seem benign on the surface. Who could be against reforms that provide federal employees with comparable private sector pay and performance incentives? With private sector employees earning 34 percent more than their public sector counterparts, any reform that helps close that gap should be welcomed, right?

Unfortunately, better pay for federal employees is not what is driving the President's civil service reform plan. Instead, this proposal seeks to both exert greater control over federal employees and to hobble federal employee labor unions whom traditionally support Democratic candidates because of their position on labor and federal employee issues.

Over the past century, Congress has passed a comprehensive set of laws designed to prevent the patronage system that ruled the federal government during the first 100 years of the country's existence. Prior to the Civil Service Act of 1883, federal jobs were often awarded to political cronies through a spoils system that resulted in incompetence and corruption. Despite some abuses that are inherent in almost any large organization, today, the American federal civil service is considered the least corrupt and most professional in the world. This model of success is in jeopardy under Bush's so called reforms.

The administration's proposal as seen in the new DHS and DOD regulations puts greater authority to “reward performance” in the hands of political appointees. History has shown that such an arrangement in civil service can quickly become a tool to intimidate or remove employees who do not share the same vision or political orientation. Loyalty to the president's policies and politics can too easily become the “performance standard.”

That is a considerable concern, especially given the actions taken by this administration in the past four years. From the unfavorable cost estimates related to the Medicare Prescription Drug law which were suppressed (and the Medicare actuary fired), to the discrediting of scientifically-determined environmental and health threats, this administration is rife with examples of undue influence.

The only thing that has kept these troubling incidents from becoming everyday occurrences are the civil service protections present in the federal workforce; protections that would be forfeited should the Bush civil service reforms became government wide.