Trump intends on sacking federal workers and replacing them with sycophants
its a Project 2025 policy....that thing which Trump said he had nothing to do with
oh and get rid of all union rights
Ordinary working people of America just voted to make themselves worse off
and then theres the American citizens who are immigrants............they might see their citizenship revoked and deported
Project 2025 Seeks to Dismantle Agencies, Terminate Up To 1 Million Federal Workers
July 15, 2024
Categories: The Insider
What could happen to our government and the federal workforce in 2025? A group of conservative organizations have a plan, and it’s not good for federal employees.
The plan is detailed in a blueprint called
Project 2025, organized by the far-right Heritage Foundation, and backed by
over 100 conservative organizations.
The plan promises a takeover of our country’s system of checks and balances in order to “dismantle the administrative state” – the operations of federal agencies and programs according to current law and regulation, including many of the laws and regulations that govern federal employment.
“Project 2025 will take away freedoms and rights from every American, will hurt the middle class and working families, and is a threat to our democracy,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. “It’s a takeover of our federal government in a manner that is not loyal to the Constitution and the law, has no interest in listening to the people, and will force employees to take orders, legal or not, or be terminated.”
“If all of their recommendations were implemented, it wouldn’t just eviscerate our statutory collective bargaining rights and pay system but undo the basics of the Pendleton Act of 1883 which replaced a corrupt spoils system with the apolitical, merit-based system we have today,” said AFGE Public Policy Director Jacque Simon.
Here are the highlights – or rather lowlights – of Project 2025 to help you understand how these plans would undermine national security, destroy democracy, and take away our rights:
- Eliminate up to a million federal jobs
Because of the proposed deep budget cuts, elimination and privatization of agencies and programs, hiring freezes, caps on the number of personnel, and other anti-government policies, some have
estimated that there would be a loss of up to a million federal jobs if Project 2025 is implemented.
- Declare public unions illegal and take away union rights
Seeking to end collective bargaining for public-sector workers, they would encourage Congress to “consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place.”
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of employees working for TSA, DOJ, USCIS, and FEMA would have their union rights stripped away by executive action on national security grounds. For other agencies that still have contracts in place, they would reinstate Trump’s executive orders busting unions and directing agencies to renegotiate contracts to obtain the strongest possible management rights.
They would reinstate Schedule F, which seeks to reclassify any career federal employee whose job is in any way connected to federal policy. This new classification politicizes the civil service, allowing the administration to hire and fire for political reasons. More than 500,000 employees could be affected and lose their work protections as they intend to use authority that’s already in the law to target jobs they say are “of a confidential, policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating character”. There are 508,000 Grade 13-15 jobs in the federal government, and the number they will convert is unknown.
- Gut federal workers’ pay and benefits
They would replace the General Schedule and Wage Grade systems with a pay system that would decide raises based on occupation and how well employees carry out orders, whether legal or not. Describing federal retirement programs as overly generous, they would reduce retirement benefits to match “the market”, noting that half of private sector firms do not offer any retirement benefits. They also want to cut Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age.
- Make it easier to discriminate against people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ people
They would restore either IQ tests or aptitude tests or both as requirements for federal hiring, despite the fact those tests have been found to be discriminatory. They identify the absence of these tests as the “root cause” of the poor performance of federal employees generally and say no merit system can exist without these tests.
They also propose abolishing so-called “disparate impact” – adverse impact of a facially neutral requirement or process – as grounds for challenging the legitimacy of the new civil service exams.
They would prohibit DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts in most agencies including VA and at the Department of Labor. They would end data collection that showed differences by race and ethnicity and rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They would also use the Department of Justice to police federal hiring government-wide to ensure that race, religion, and sex are not considered.
- Dismantle and privatize federal agencies
Under Project 2025, the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be eliminated, and the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would be privatized. DHS and TSA were created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to coordinate our national security efforts, facilitate intelligence sharing, and prevent another terrorist attack. Both agencies have done an amazing job protecting our homeland. Bringing our country back to the pre-9/11 era is not only irresponsible but also puts all of us at risk.
The Department of Education would be eliminated and oversight of education and federal funding for education will be handed over to the states. Also being gutted are regulations prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be eliminated and moved to the Department of Interior or the Department of Transportation if combined with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The costs of disaster preparedness and response would be shifted to states and local governments.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s many regional labs and entire offices of enforcement and compliance and scientific integrity and risk information would be eliminated. This will endanger public health by giving corporations and big businesses a greenlight to pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to “privatize as much as possible” and close many hospitals and clinics. This will hurt veterans who rely on the VA’s expertise on illnesses unique to veterans. Veterans will also be talking to robots or chat bots instead of a live person when much of the
Veterans Benefits Administration is automated.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be taken apart and send much of its work to states and other agencies – bad news for low income and working-class families who rely on its meagre assistance.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) would lose its independence and be under control of the President. They believe that DOJ decisions should “always be consistent with the President’s policy agenda and the rule of law.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be drastically reduced and split into two entities: one gathering scientific data and one making public health recommendations and policies. Breaking up the CDC could hinder its ability to prevent and mitigate an outbreak. The CDC would also privatize all test development and laboratory functions and focus on providing guidance in these areas instead of “competing with the private sector.” They would move CDC’s data infrastructure and management to a public-private partnership, causing the government to lose ownership and control of the data.
