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FIRST ON FOX: A Republican is taking aim at the “under-performing, inefficient and unaccountable federal bureaucracy” in a new bill designed to more easily remove failing federal employees.
House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations Ranking Member Jody Hice, R-Ga., is introducing the Accountable Federal Employees Act Wednesday, which aims to reform the federal bureaucracy.
“I’m proud to introduce the Accountable Federal Employees Act, which reigns in the unelected, unaccountable federal bureaucracy and cements President Trump’s ground-breaking policies to address failing employees. Federal employees serve hardworking American taxpayers, and we must ensure the taxpayers’ investment in the federal government is well spent,” Hice said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.
BIG BUREAUCRACY FUMBLED COVID AND OUR FAITH IN INSTITUTIONS
President Joe Biden speaks at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference, Monday, March 14, 2022, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The COVID-19 pandemic response exposed a number of weaknesses within federal government bureaucracies that undermined public confidence with how large government bureaucracies effectively managed a major crisis.
The bill revives former President Trump’s past orders, which sought to hold taxpayer-funded employees accountable and reform the federal workforce.
“Americans are suffering at the hands of under-performing federal employees,” the ranking member stated.
Hice believes that “Democrats have only sought to protect and reward inadequate job performance with bulletproof job security and a plethora of taxpayer-funded benefits rather than holding these employees accountable for their work.”
“It’s time for Congress to ensure federal agencies meet their missions, and that starts with holding bureaucrats accountable to the American people,” said Hice in his statement.
House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations Ranking Member Jody Hice, R-Ga
In 2018, Trump signed three executive orders overhauling the federal bureaucracy, including an order that makes it easier to fire federal workers for misconduct.
“To empower our civil servants to best help others, the government must always operate more efficiently and more securely,” the former president said.
Trump’s third executive order, focused on federal unions, was aimed at reducing waste and expenditures and requires federal employees to spend at least 75% of their time working on the job they were hired to do, as opposed to working on federal union work. It also allowed the federal government to start charging unions for office space in federal buildings.
When Biden assumed office, he rolled back Trump’s executive orders on the bureaucracy.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a press conference following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 19, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
About 1.2 million federal employees are represented by labor unions. Hice’s proposed legislation would set particular guidelines on the collective bargaining actions by federal employees.
Hice’s bill states that “agencies should ensure that taxpayer-funded union time is used efficiently and authorized in amounts that are reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest.”
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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, previously introduced the Reduce Bureaucracy Act, a bill that would limit the size of the federal bureaucracy and make sure that federal appointees could not turn their appointments into lifelong career positions.
“Our democracy wasn’t designed to be run by a large, unchecked federal bureaucracy,” the senator stated in a May 2021 press release.
Fox News’ Houston Keene and Karol Markowicz contributed to this story
