Title:
"Gingrich: Trump Needs Ability to Fire 'Incompetent Bureaucrats'"
I've been a member of this forum for a while now, and I've NEVER seen any other member ONCE lay out how he/she might rein in runaway bureaucracies and regulatory agencies such as the EPA.
I've come to a plan as to how it should be done.
I believe this would prove workable and "un-challengeable" through administrative law procedures that govern hiring/firing of civil service employees.
In an agency like EPA, I believe there are three kinds of employees:
- appointed positions (who serve at the pleasure of the president)
- civil-service positions (who cannot be "terminated for pleasure" and can only be fired "for cause", AFTER the appropriate [and lengthly] procedures have been followed).
- contractors (who are bound by legal contract).
How I would deal with each of these classes:
Appointed positions -- simply terminate them, ALL of them. Bye bye.
Civil-service employees -- since they can't simply be "given the boot", there are a few possible approaches here:
1. Relieve them of their duties and current projects. That is to say, re-assign them from whatever tasks they currently perform, even if that means putting them at a desk with nothing to do all day. Pay them for doing nothing.
You're laughing or scowling -- "what's the purpose of that?" you wonder.
My rationale is that by "doing their jobs" (especially in the EPA, where "their jobs" are destructive to the American economy and the freedom of ordinary Americans) they are doing more damage, at greater cost, than they would do if they were relieved of their jobs and paid to do nothing at all.
2. Advise ALL the employees in the agency that they will receive no more favorable job reviews so long as they remain with that agency, but if they submit applications to move elsewhere, they will be given good referrals upon doing so.
3. If nothing else works, tell them to go home and pay them to STAY HOME. They can't wreck the country and the Constitution by doing that.
Employees so "re-assigned to nothing" would really have no recourse under administrative law -- after all, they're still being paid, benefits, etc. If they don't like being paid for doing nothing, well, they can always -- quit.
Contractors -- the agencies are bound to their prior agreements with these types. Advise them that as of a certain date, those contracts are terminated by the government. If liquidated damages are specified, simply pay them. Otherwise, force them to the courts for any compensation they demand. If the contractors win in the courts, just pay them to get rid of them. And DON'T HIRE ANY MORE.
If I was hired by Trump to deal with, say, the EPA, that's what I'd do.
OK, guys and gals, shoot me down!
