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Today’s installation of hardcore Trump loyalist Paul Dans as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management is big signal that the Trump administration is moving full steam head in its efforts to break the civil service and hamstring the Biden administration. (1/7)
OPM is in charge of implementing Trump’s Schedule F Executive Order, which could replace thousands of civil servants with political appointees, jeopardizing Biden’s ability to move fast on pandemic response, civil rights enforcement, and even putting together a budget. (2/7)
As reported by @POGOBlog, Dans was too extreme for Trump’s last OPM Director, who resigned when Dans was appointed White House liaison. Since then, Dans has been pushing to eliminate merit protections and destroy the civil service. (3/7) https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2020/06/inside-the-white-house-plan-to-plant-cronies-all-over/https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2020/06/inside-the-white-house-plan-to-plant-cronies-all-over/
If Congress doesn’t act, Dans will get his chance. As Dans takes the chief of staff job, Trump has also changed OPM’s rules to make him next in line as acting OPM Director. Elevating him this way only makes sense if he’s going to be pushing something big, like Schedule F. (4/7)
Democrats aren’t helpless. As I wrote for @revolvingdoorDC in @theprospect, Congress can block Schedule F by denying funding for its implementation in the upcoming spending bills. Good government groups have called on Congress to do the same. (5/7) https://prospect.org/politics/how-democrats-can-stop-trumps-transition-sabotage/
Former agency leaders from both sides of the aisle have condemned Schedule F and called for Congress to act to block it. The experts agree: waiting until January 21st is too late to reverse the damage. But @transition46, @speakerpelosi and @senschumer have all been silent. (6/7)
Democrats ran on a return to competence and good government. Identifying, elevating and addressing these issues is core to that promise. This is a political fight that Democrats can win, if they’re willing to have it. (7/7)
Bonus Georgia tweet if you read to the end -- do you really think David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler want to spend the next two weeks talking about why they're supporting a shutdown over the civil service?
