June 18, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement announcing the launch of http://firetheswamp.com urging passage of the MERIT Act by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.):
“There has been a tremendous amount of talk about draining the swamp. The sad fact is, you can’t drain the swamp without pulling the plug on civil servants who are neither civil nor do they serve the people. The MERIT Act is based upon language that has allowed the Veterans Affairs Secretary to fire non-performing and bad public employees on an expedited basis. Federal employees work for taxpayers, and the least taxpayers should be able to expect are those employees doing their jobs. Those who either refuse or are unable to do their jobs are the definition of government waste, and the heads of every department and agency should have the capacity to fire them through a fair but expedited process.
“Since the passage in 2017 of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, firings for cause from the VA have increased by 26 percent, proving that the process works. The only way President Trump will be able to drain the swamp is if he can fire the swamp.”
Attachments:
“Job Security: Federal civil service employees have a 99.5 percent chance of never being fired,” By Natalia Castro, May 14, 2018 at http://dailytorch.com/2018/05/job-security-federal-civil-service-employees-have-a-99-5-percent-chance-of-never-being-fired/
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.
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