Get those resumes in order

Consider yourself on notice, all you folks at the Education, Labor and Commerce departments: We’re just going to have to shut you down.

It’s just the best thing for everybody.

At least, that is, according to Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), chairman of House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy. He noted this necessity in a recent op-ed in the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger.

He was laying out some of the things that divide two major political parties in terms of the debt ceiling crisis:

“Granted, the Department[s] of Education, Labor, Commerce, and other bureaucracies that have enjoyed double-digit budget increases the past 10 years will have to shut down. But this is where our differences truly materialize. I believe that states like Florida can educate our kids, ensure a safe workplace, promote our products and are closest to the people.”

A quick Web search turns up some ballpark employment numbers for 2008 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (while it still exists): 39,000 positions at the Commerce Department, 16,000 at Labor and 4,000 at Education — or 59,000 positions in all.

That seems likes small potatoes compared, for example, to the 652,000 Defense Department employees listed by BLS. If cost-cutting is the goal, one might suggest that the Florida National Guard take up the defense of Florida as well.

Of course, the likelihood of that happening is probably on a par with the likelihood of closing down the three aforementioned federal agencies.

But the fact that the lawmaker who chairs the federal workforce subcommittee suggests that several agencies simply “will have to shut down” can’t bode well for feds — no matter where they work.