The Coming Battle Over Civil Service Reform
A thicket of laws shielding civil servants from being fired is ripe for reappraisal.
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President-elect Trumpâs vow to fire the Justice Department lawyers pursuing the prosecution of him certainly puts into sharp relief the question of civil service reform. Itâs part of a gathering storm over whether he, or any, president can tame the entrenched Washington bureaucracy. It sets the stage for a confrontation over the thicket of laws that shield federal civil servants from being fired. These laws, some of which date from the 19th century, are ripe for reappraisal.
The New York Sun is all for it. We, and no doubt many others, watched in horror at the emergence during Trumpâs first term of a self-declared âresistanceâ to the elected administration. The Times actually published an op-ed piece by âAnonymous,â an administration aid, vowing to frustrate parts of the agenda of the elected government in which âAnonymousâ was serving. Secretary Clinton at one point declared herself part of the resistance.
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