Federal Workforce Reduction

The Federal Workforce Reduction Act (H.R. 657) is a dangerous scheme to reduce the size of the federal workforce by allowing federal agencies to hire just one employee for every two who leave the federal service or retire.  This would cause federal agencies, many of which are already severely understaffed, a personnel crisis that will greatly reduce the federal government’s effectiveness and greatly reduce services the American people rely on.  Furthermore, this bill would not save taxpayers money because it does not reduce in any way the services expected of federal agencies.  This bill would simply cause a cost shift from the federal workforce to contractors, which have proven to be more costly than the federal workforce and less accountable.  Agencies will simply be forced to hire contractors to pick up the slack of federal workforce cuts.  NFFE-IAM strongly opposes this legislation.

The Federal Workforce Reduction Act (H.R. 657) aims to reduce the size of the federal workforce by allowing federal agencies to hire just one employee for every two who leave the federal service or retire.  Federal agencies would share a hiring pool so that some agencies could maintain staffing levels or even grow staffing while others would receive steep staffing cuts.  The net impact for all agencies in the pool would be one employee hired for every two that leave the federal service or retire.

This would cause serious problems at federal agencies because most agencies are already significantly understaffed due to decades of shrinking budgets.  Most federal agencies cannot adequately sustain any significant staff cuts, much less broad cuts that would replace one employee for every two that leave the federal service.

Passage of this bill would result in a logistical nightmare for federal agencies that would ultimately impact the American public they serve. Reducing the federal workforce through an arbitrary 1-for-2 replacement policy will greatly reduce the services agencies provide to the American people. Passports would take months to get.  National parks and forests enjoyed by millions would be forced to close.  Federal response to forest fires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters would be significantly slower and less effective. Veterans would have to wait longer for the care they depend on.  These are just a few examples of the countless number of ways an arbitrary staff reduction in the federal government would impact Americans.

Not only will this bill shortchange the American people on the vital services they receive from experienced federal workers every day, it will likely just result in a cost-shift away from federal workers to contractors who have proven to be more expensive and operate with less transparency and oversight.  Forced contracting out due to staff shortages is a non-strategic approach that will surely coast taxpayers more than it will save.

This bill would also have a negative impact on the overall economy.  Forcing federal employees onto the unemployment rolls will further strain state and federal unemployment programs, costing the taxpayers billions on top of the loss in key federal services.

Overall, this proposal would diminish services, raise costs, and force the American taxpayer to foot the bill.  NFFE-IAM strongly opposes this legislation.