Dec. 13, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government today issued the following joint statement with twelve conservative leaders including former Attorney General Ed Meese, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Representative Bob McEwen and Tea Party Patriots Action Honorary Chairman Jenny Beth Martin in favor of Congress passing the MERIT Act during the lame duck session:
“The December spending bill is the last chance for the 115th Congress to do something to limit the size and scope of government. After disappointing decisions to significantly increase government spending levels over the past two years, it is imperative that Congress pass language which expedites the prompt and appropriate firing of federal employees who are either incompetent or don’t perform their assigned duties. The simple truth is that you cannot drain the swamp, unless you can fire the swamp. Currently, it takes years for a substandard federal employee to be removed from their position, a complex and timely process most supervisors do not wish to participate in at all. This leaves the federal government with a termination for cause rate of only .53 percent. The current system incentivizes federal managers to simply ignore poor performers costing taxpayers millions of dollars in salaries, creating a workplace which rewards federal employee wage theft, while penalizing those workers who are attempting to pick up the slack.
“Any appropriations legislation moving toward the president’s desk this month must include the House Oversight and Government Reform language of the MERIT Act as a policy rider. The language of the MERIT Act has already been implemented at the Department of Veterans Affairs and, as a result, increased terminations for cause at the agency by 26 percent. The eight departments affected by this appropriations legislation should see this change as well.
“Good civil servants deserve to work in constructive workplaces and bad civil servants deserve to be dismissed. As conservatives, we see the MERIT Act language as integral to reigning in the out of control federal bureaucracy and restoring accountability to federal civil service.”
The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman
Constitutional Congress, Inc.
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
Jenny Beth Martin
Honorary Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Action
The Honorable George K. Rasley, Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Tom Schatz
President
Council for Citizens against Government Waste
Richard Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government
Maria Zack
President
Nations in Action Foundation
George Landrith
President
Frontiers of Freedom
Sandy Rios
Director of Governmental Affairs
American Family Association
Wesley Denton
Former communications director
Senator Jim DeMint
David Williams
President
Taxpayer Protection Alliance
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.
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