Fedweek

Image: Brandon Bourdages/Shutterstock.com

The leadership in the next Congress of the House and Senate committees dealing with federal workplace issues is starting to fill out, with the announcement that Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will become the ranking minority member of the House panel when Democrats take control in January and that Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., will be ranking minority member on the Senate panel.

It already had been determined that Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., would become chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee after having been the ranking Democrat under Republican control of that panel. A new top Republican was needed due to the retirement of chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. Jordan is a former head of a group of House Republican conservatives who have advocated steps such as reducing federal employment through attrition and increasing the required employee contributions toward retirement.

On the Senate side, Sen. Ron Johnson presumably will remain chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee but Democrats needed to choose a new ranking member due to the defeat of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Peters has been active in federal workplace issues including the cybersecurity workforce, disposal of excess agency property, and savings in acquisition and repair costs.

Most subcommittee assignments likely won’t be made until sometime in January, although it’s already been determined that Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., will head the federal workforce subcommittee on the House side. Like Cummings, Connolly has sided consistently with federal employee unions on pay, benefits and workforce issues such as union official time and disciplinary practices.