Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Freeze Federal Hiring, Slash Workforce Through Attrition
Wednesday, February 16, 2011(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Last
week, Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
introduced the Federal Workforce Reduction Act
of 2011, H.R. 657, a
bill that would freeze federal hiring and slash
the workforce through attrition.
Co-sponsored by 27 other Republican
lawmakers, the bill will place an indefinite
hiring freeze on all federal agencies except
for the Departments of Defense, Homeland
Security, and Veterans Affairs. Complementing
the freeze is a proposed “2 for 1” hiring
restriction, permitting covered agencies to
hire only one new employee for every two who
retire or leave federal service.
“Slashing the federal workforce with a ‘2
for 1’ attrition scheme without giving any
thought to how it will impact vital services is
just bad policy, plain and simple,” said NFFE
National President William R. Dougan.
“Indiscriminately eliminating federal jobs will
only result in fewer services to the American
people, and a logistical nightmare for federal
agencies already looking at deep budget
cuts.”
According to the text of the legislation,
the hiring restrictions would not be lifted
until the federal deficit has been eliminated.
Though balancing the budget is an admirable
goal, it is mathematically impossible to do so
by slashing the civil service - a fact that
Rep. Lummis and her colleagues don’t want the
public to know.
“To sell
this bill as a deficit reduction measure is
laughable,” said NFFE Legislative Director
Randy Erwin. “The salaries and benefits of
targeted employees account for less than 2
percent of the federal budget, and cutting
staff will only lead to a cost-shift that would
be more expensive than filling vacancies as
needed. This proposal is clearly politically
driven and just another example of the myopic
proposals being put forth to senselessly target
our dedicated civil
servants.”