Federal workers are important and valuable. The administration’s efforts to mass reduce the number of federal employees and shut down agencies will thwart services to Americans, are possibly illegal and will diminish our country. Certainly, there are problems of inefficiency and wastefulness, but to close the doors of whole agencies and decrease the workforce drastically will set us back years.
Federal workers handle government functions, which are essential to the delivery of services to all Americans. These workers include air traffic controllers; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and IRS employees; food and drug inspectors; medical, nuclear and environmental researchers; FBI agents; meteorologists; farm service workers; and employees who handle loans and grants for roads, water/sewer, mortgages, businesses, education, food for the poor, etc. Often, these jobs are understaffed. Reducing staffing drastically will make these services even less effective and staff help even more difficult to attain.
The president’s mass layoffs of employees who have been on the job less than a year or two at multiple agencies is contrary to Congress’ appropriations. There is a lack of funding appropriated to cover the considerable costs of paying workers to resign and receive compensation for not working through September. They may only be paid through March 14, when the current budget-continuing resolution ends. Federal law limits paid administrative leave such as this to 10 days per year, not eight months.
Cutting so many employees from the payroll will increase already long wait times for aid for Americans. Local offices, even in Dover, have been affected by drastic staff cuts. Having even less staffing will mean longer waits for help with services such as tax assistance at the IRS, help for farmers, funding for roads, mortgages for eligible low-income Americans and water, sewer and housing improvement projects. Some of these programs already have wait times of many months due to a lack of sufficient staff to handle them.
Requiring more in-office work hours is appropriate and has already been addressed. Ensuring that employees work productively, effectively and efficiently should be instilled in federal managers. Also, more time in the office will improve productivity and customer response. But mass layoffs are not the answer. Better supervision and well-thought-out reductions in programs are the solution.
David B. Baker
Milton
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
