Chip Roy Introduces Bill That Would Allow the President to Fire Executive-Branch Employees

Today, Representative Chip Roy (R., Texas) introduced the Public Service Reform Act (PSRA), a long-overdue, good-government reform aimed at reining in the runaway power of the administrative state. According to a summary of the bill exclusively obtained by National Review, the PSRA would “make all executive branch employees at-will, meaning they can face any adverse action, including removal, provided it is not a prohibited personnel practice, such as racial discrimination.” The bill’s description continues:

It establishes an efficient termination process. Under this framework:

• An employee shall be notified of his/her removal and the reasons for it;
• The employee shall have 14 days to provide a written response;
• An agency deciding official shall decide to proceed with the termination or not;
• The agency head has discretion to hold a hearing over the termination if needed;
• The deciding official’s decision shall be the agency’s final decision, unless the agency head or POTUS reverses the termination within 7 days;
• Provides post-facto whistleblower protections that penalizes frivolous claims and protects legitimate whistleblowers with reinstatement and backpay;
• Allows a federal employee to bring a discrimination claim to the EEOC, however, the claim would be treated as if it came from the private sector.

The bill covers all non-political executive branch employees and removes any avenues for outside appeals after termination, which are abused by poor-performing or politically- motivated bureaucrats.

Further, the bill would eliminate the Merit Systems Protection Board and other pathways for adverse action appeal.

The PSRA already enjoys the endorsement of conservative groups such as Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, and America First Works. “We applaud Rep. Chip Roy’s legislation as it brings much-needed reform, helping fight government corruption by draining the swamp,” Ashley Hayek, Executive Director of America First Works, wrote in a statement. “Federal agencies need the ability to remove career bureaucrats who underperform or subvert the will of the American people.” Indeed, this should be a priority for anyone who cares about the health of the American constitutional order. An administrative state that is unaccountable to the president is at odds with the Founders’ Constitution — and the fundamental principle of self-government: As Jonathan Turley wrote back in 2013, “The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined . . . the vast majority of ‘laws’ governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats. One study found that in 2007, Congress enacted 138 public laws, while federal agencies finalized 2,926 rules, including 61 major regulations.” And it’s incredibly difficult for the one member of the executive branch who’s actually accountable to voters — i.e., the president — to actually change the composition of this bureaucracy. As Roy notes:

To fire employees, federal supervisors must navigate an unjustifiably complex and time-consuming process, conducting a formal investigation and giving employees 30 days advance notice. During this time, they are prohibited from hiring a replacement.

• Disgruntled employees often intentionally impeded policies they personally disliked, delaying important work, hiding information from political appointees, and in some cases outright refusing to do their jobs.

• Career employees have misrepresented federal regulations and legal precedent, withheld records they were required by law to turn over, and left political employees scrambling to make up work they not only would not do, but actively obstructed.

The stark nature of this issue was brought into sharp relief during the Trump administration, when, as Roy said, “Non-political executive branch employees consistently hindered political employees’ work and undermined the executive branch’s agenda, with few repercussions.” The logical response, as I myself have argued in the past, is to allow the president to actually exercise control over who serves in the branch of government he ostensibly oversees. As I wrote in March:

The idea that administrators in the executive branch should just get to decide that a president’s decisions are unacceptable, over and above the expressed electoral wishes of the people, is fundamentally un-American. In our republican form of government, the administrative state doesn’t get to unilaterally determine which policies are worth pursuing. Within the parameters set by the Constitution, the people do.

It’s encouraging to see conservatives like Roy actually take proactive measures to remedy this issue and restore sovereignty to where it should lie — in the hands of the people’s elected representatives. This should be a no-brainer for Republicans.