The Trump campaign also advocated reviving its effort to shift jobs out of the national capital area, something GAO and IGs said caused USDA and BLM employees to resign or retire. Image: James Kirkikis/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAmong the federal workforce programs that the Trump campaign directly addressed for repeal was the Biden administration’s initiative promoting diversity, equity and inclusiveness initiatives within federal agencies and as a general government policy.
Late in the first Trump term, agency DEI programs had been suspended pending a review of their content, but the Trump campaign advocated canceling all such programs outright and eliminating positions related to them.
The Trump campaign also advocated reviving its effort—which the Biden administration had dropped—to shift jobs from the national capital area to other parts of the country. During the first Trump administration, that was done with two USDA subagencies and most of Bureau of Land Management headquarters; evaluations by GAO and agency inspectors general said that disruptions resulted as many employees resigned or retired.
Another notable workforce-related initiative of the first Trump administration was to attempt to shift OPM’s retirement and insurance functions to the GSA and put its policy functions under OMB. Congress stalled those plans pending an outside study that ultimately strongly recommended against it. That study, not completed until 2021, meanwhile recommended a number of operating changes for OPM that the Biden administration pursued, including promoting its role as advisor to other agencies on personnel matters.
The Trump administration had confirmed directors of OPM for only a total of about a year, as both of those who were confirmed resigned—or were forced out, depending on the interpretation—after about six months each, largely due to their reluctance regarding the consolidation plan. For most of the time, the OMB deputy director for management acted as OPM director, effectively putting federal personnel policy directly under the White House even without the proposed consolidation.
Meanwhile, having a Republican in the White House likely will trigger another look at agency telework practices. Under GOP leadership in the last two years, the House several times has passed measures, none of which have yet made it into law, pushed by members who point to constituent complaints about customer service and a GAO report on high levels of underused federal office space.
Among those ideas are to roll back telework practices to those prevailing before the pandemic, require the administration to issue a plan for reducing office space where the utilization rate is less than 60 percent, based on 150 usable square feet per person, make all teleworkers subject to the lowest rate of locality pay regardless of where they work, and ban regular telework at DoD with few exceptions.
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See also,
How Do Age and Years of Service Impact My Federal Retirement
The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
