The Washington Swamp Is the Real Threat to Democracy

By James Sherk February 08, 2022

 

Washington policymakers often pontificate about protecting democracy. But in typical fashion, congressional leaders miss the real problem. Photo ID laws and bans on ballot harvesting do not threaten democracy. Laws that make it hard to fire federal bureaucrats do. They empower the bureaucracy to pursue its own agenda, no matter who the voters elect. This happened widely during the Trump administration.

While the American people elect the president, career employees perform almost all the regular work of government. These career employees enjoy incredible job protections. The process of removing a tenured federal employee takes six months to a year. Afterward, they can appeal (and are frequently reinstated). Surveys show only a quarter of federal supervisors believe they could remove a demonstrably poor performer. Career employees are not untouchable, but they are not far from it, either.

Political appointees in the Trump administration reported widespread policy resistance from career staff. This resistance took many forms.

• career employees simply refused to implement policies they personally opposed
•  bipartisan federal law prohibits hospitals from forcing nurses to perform abortions. Career staff in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division refused to enforce these conscience protections.
• Civil Rights Division career staff refused to sue Yale University for discriminating against Asian American applicants.
• HR staff at the Department of Health and Human Services ignored the hiring freeze President Trump
• they slow-walked or underperformed on projects they opposed. 
• career staff hostility widely forced Trump administration political appointees to draft sensitive regulations on their own. 
• They could not rely on career staff to produce quality drafts that would pass legal muster.
• Many career lawyers at the National Labor Relations Board, for example, only presented legal precedents that supported the union’s position.

If Congress really wants to protect democracy, it should make the federal bureaucracy at-will once again. Elections only matter if the government is accountable to the voters’ representatives........ ...............To Read More.....