Federal employees could be more easily removed under new House bill 

Emboldened by the incoming Trump administration and the anticipated recommendations of its new advisory panel, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., unveiled new legislation Thursday that would dramatically alter how the federal civil service manages employee performance.

The Modern Employment Reform, Improvement and Transformation Act (HR 10397) proposes stark reforms to statutes governing the federal workforce, including streamlining the removal of an employee accused of poor performance or misconduct and removing certain employee appeals and union grievance processes.

Loudermilk — who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. — said in a statement that he was encouraged by the potential work of the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump’s advisory panel headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and tasked with reducing the size of the federal workforce. He went on to say that the MERIT Act would complement DOGE’s initiatives. 

“I have been diligently working on this bill for several years; and, now is the time to start reforming our outdated civil service system,” he said. “[The MERIT Act] would restructure the federal employment code, by modeling employee dismissal with that of the private sector and lessening the time it takes to root out misconduct and poor performance.”

Specifically, the legislation would repeal the U.S. code governing how agencies handle poor performance, would amend rules to prevent employees subject to a grade reduction from being placed on administrative leave while they appeal and would allow agencies to fire them if they do not report to work. 

It would also require an agency, once it has determined evidence of employee misconduct or poor performance worthy of removal, to issue a decision within 15 days and without first administering a performance improvement plan.  

The MERIT Act also proposes removing senior executives rather than demoting them, recouping bonuses and awards based on performance and conduct issues, removing select retirement benefits for employees convicted of a felony, ending union grievances based on adverse personnel actions — instead requiring direct appeals to the Merit System Protection Board — prohibiting furlough appeals and extending the employee probationary period to two years, up from one year.

Extending the would bring back and expand a policy the Defense Department had previously adopted in the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, only to repeal it six years later in the Fiscal 2022 NDAA. 

"Working as a career employee in the federal government has become synonymous with having a bulletproof get-out-of-jail-free card for misconduct or poor performance. It can take months, or even years, before someone is demoted, let alone fired," said Luna, in a statement. "If we want to make our government more efficient for the people, a revision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act is long overdue.”

The legislation comes as Musk and Ramaswamy have touted plans to slash telework as a way to drive attrition and reduce the size of the civilian workforce. 

The bill has been referred to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Representatives from the American Federation of Government Employees, National Treasury Employees Union and Senior Executives Association were unavailable for comment by press time.