A "swamp monster" appeared along with Republican Study Committee members during a Thursday event to unveil the committee's reform plan.

A "swamp monster" appeared along with Republican Study Committee members during a Thursday event to unveil the committee's reform plan. Eric Katz / GovExec.com

House Republicans Unveil Plan to Boost Merit Pay and Slash Pensions

Proposals would help rein in a "swamp monster" of a runaway bureaucracy, lawmakers say.

A group consisting of three-quarters of House Republicans on Thursday released a new blueprint to overhaul the civil service, calling for easier firing, more merit-based bonuses and cuts to automatic pay raises. 

The Republican Study Committee and its 146 members praised the federal workforce overall, but said in its Government Efficiency, Accountability and Reform Task Force report that civil servants' overall compensation is too high. The report repeated a long-running complaint that good applicants are too hard to hire and bad workers are too hard to fire, suggesting that some feds are intentionally undermining the Trump administration. At an event at the Capitol to unveil the reform plan, which featured several members of the committee as well as a man in a “swamp monster” costume, lawmakers said it would serve as a “playbook” for legislative changes once Republicans retake control of Congress. 

“The fourth branch of government is the bureaucracy,” said Rep. Mark Johnson, R-La., the Republican Study Committee’s chairman, on Thursday. “It’s time to scale it back and this is the way to do it.”

The committee suggested Congress implement many of the proposals from President Trump’s reorganization plan, saying the government needs to be consolidated and restructured. 

“As America enters a new decade, our nation faces a crisis in government inefficiency,” the committee members wrote in the report. “The federal government has never been larger or more expensive, yet, we have never had more tools at our disposal to streamline, consolidate, and reduce the size of government.”

The study committee called for more than 100 changes, ranging from deregulation to eliminating agencies it called redundant or unnecessary. The Republican lawmakers added that all of their proposals, however, would not have the promised impact without significant personnel reforms.  

“A perfect plan, policy, or system is meaningless without having the right people,” they said. “Yet, without a federal workforce made up of true civil servants that are talented, patriotic, and hardworking, meaningful reform cannot be implemented.”

Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., said the reforms should bring federal employees more in line with their private sector counterparts. 

“We wanted to bring some of the private sector practices into personnel management so that federal workers can be paid appropriately have a little more skip in their step, but also have accountability and how they do their jobs,” Gianforte said. 

The report called for a less centralized hiring process, empowering managers and subject matter experts over the Office of Personnel Management. It also suggested an easier process for firing poorly performing and misbehaving employees. Lawmakers pointed specifically to the Modern Employees Reform, Improvement and Transformation (MERIT) Act, introduced last Congress by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., which would empower agency heads to fire any employee, provided they give a notice in writing. 

Employees would have seven days to appeal a removal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which would in turn have 30 days to make a final decision. If it did not rule in time, the agency’s decision would stand. Employees would not receive any pay or benefits in that interim period. The measure would provide agencies with the authority to rescind bonuses or other cash awards deemed to be “wrongly paid” to workers and extend the probationary period for new hires from one to two years.

The lawmakers said agencies should severely curb the use of performance improvement plans typically offered to employees as a precursor to discipline. Agencies need more authority to punish employees, they said, in part because “the Trump Administration has at times been burdened as commonsense proposals are undermined by partisan federal bureaucrats.”

The committee said the current structure of step increases and across-the-board pay raises means federal employees “get a raise for merely not getting fired,” which, it added, is “virtually impossible.”  

“With a compensation package almost completely removed from merit, employees have little incentive to perform at a higher level that would ultimately benefit the American taxpayer,” the lawmakers said. 

The Republican Study Committee said step increases should be made smaller with the savings going to agency leaders to dole out as bonuses to top performers. OPM should change the definition for “fully successful” on performance ratings, it added, to make it a harder-to-reach standard. 

Citing research by the Congressional Budget Office, the lawmakers suggested the lowest-ranked federal employees are overpaid and those at the top are underpaid. To fix this, they said Congress should expand the General Schedule so top-ranked employees earn more and those at the bottom earn less. 

Recalling a common suggestion from Republican reform proposals, the plan envisioned a retirement system in which pensions are phased out in favor of a Thrift Savings Plan-only system, with larger agency contributions. The lawmakers called for the government to pay a flat fee for workers’ premiums in the Federal Employees Health Benefits System, rather than a percentage of the overall cost, to give employees an incentive to select cheaper plans. They said newly awarded paid parental leave should count against existing paid leave days, which should also be reduced.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.