Amid all the talk of tariffs, trade wars, and tax cuts, the media missed the news that President Trump is fundamentally transforming the federal workforce for the better. In April, his administration began implementing its plan to make top civil servants politically accountable.
This move would benefit presidents of both parties and millions of federal workers. Most of all, it would make Washington, D.C. do a better job of delivering for the American people.
Trump is responding to a crisis — one that plagued him during his first term and threatens to define his second term. Essentially, many of the career federal bureaucrats who oversee the regulatory process have used their power to prevent the president’s priorities from becoming policy. There are many documented examples from the first Trump administration. And right before the start of the second Trump administration, a poll found that 75 percent of federal managers who voted for Kamala Harris planned to disobey instructions they don’t like.
In the private sector, these workers would be fired for refusing to do their job. But in the federal government, senior career bureaucrats are nearly impossible to remove, even when they ignore or undermine a democratically elected president.
That makes this more than just a crisis for Donald Trump. It’s a crisis for all of America. While Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in the federal bureaucracy, conservative career officials could also refuse to implement a liberal president’s agenda — on anything from education to energy to economic policy.
Regardless, the result is the same: The duly elected president can’t do what people elected him to do. The lack of accountability ultimately undercuts democracy itself, giving unelected bureaucrats the power to ignore the will of the American people.
Enter Trump’s reform.
His administration has drafted a regulation that would make top civil servants “at-will” employees, the same as most workers in the private sector. All told, about 50,000 career bureaucrats would be affected by the proposed rule — about 2 percent of the federal workforce. If these senior employees refuse to follow a legal order or otherwise fail to do their job, it would be much easier to fire them. The regulation is currently open for comment from the public, and when it’s finalized, it would make it much harder for bureaucrats to resist a president — whether Donald Trump or anyone else.
Only the most important career officials would be covered by this reform. They’re the managers, lawyers and other senior bureaucrats — in every federal agency — who most influence the policymaking process. Crucially, the new reform wouldn’t affect the millions of government workers who implement federal policies. Think border patrol agents, wage-and-hour inspectors and the countless other jobs that keep the federal government running. None of them would be at risk of losing their jobs.
But every federal employee would benefit from this reform. Most of them work for the government because they want to serve the American people, which is harder when senior officials stand in the way of presidential priorities. Once those top bureaucrats are removed for good cause — or once they stop resisting or otherwise refusing to do their job — America’s true public servants would find it easier to do their job, too.
In other words, this reform would lead to a better functioning federal government overall. In states that have already moved to this system — including Georgia, Arizona, Texas and Florida — reports show that government employees are happier and better performing.
But the American people would benefit most of all. They need a government that’s more efficient, effective and most of all, accountable — a government that advances the agenda that voters backed at the ballot box. Trump’s reform would help make that vision a reality, making it easier for him and future presidents of both parties to enact their priorities and deliver for voters.
This is nothing less than a transformation of the federal government. And it may very well be the most meaningful thing Donald Trump achieves.
Karen Harned is President of Harned Strategies LLC and a senior fellow at the Institute for the American Worker. F. Vincent Vernuccio is president of the Institute for the American Worker.
