I previously wrote about the potential effect of Project 2025 on the private sector workforce here. But, what about the Federal workforce? Well, looking at the book’s discussion of the Federal workforce, we enter the bizarro world of right-wing politics.

Right off the bat, the book claims that today, Federal workers are not held accountable. Project 2025, p. 71. For those of us who regularly represent Federal workers, this statement is farcical. If the workers are not held accountable, there would be no need for lawyers like myself. Even if we allow for some hyperbole on the part of the book’s authors, yes, Federal workers are held accountable. It is a myth that civil service workers cannot be fired. I see in the Federal workforce the same disciplinary measures I see among private sector employees.

Fully Successful

The authors are concerned that one study found that 99% of workers are rated fully successful or above. And, only 0.3% are rated minimally successful. The authors cite a 2013 report regarding permanent Federal employees. Project 2025, p. 73, n. 15. But, that conclusion says little, so far as it goes. That same study shows that three-fourths of GS-13 to GS-15 were rated in the top two categories. That is not a surprising result. There are just not many of those high level managers at the GS-13, GS-15 level – outside of Washington, D.C. In my 30 years of representing Federal employees far from the beltway, I have never represented anyone above GS-13. The ratings decrease some as you go down the GS rating ladder. See the study the authors used here.

This is just not a crazy result. In the military, we had a similar result that as you got higher, the performance ratings were higher. Yet, we did just fine weeding out the bad apples. In many private sector jobs, they do no performance evaluations. None. The Federal sector goes well beyond the private sector in both training of its managers and in employing a viable rating system. The Heritage Foundation is digging deep to find evidence of a lack of accountability.

Disparate Impact Lawsuits

Regarding Federal employees, the authors again attack disparate impact lawsuits – as their counter-parts did regarding private sector employees. Project 2025, p. 72, 583. Disparate impact lawsuits are exceedingly rare. Disparate impact lawsuits are lawsuits that claim a policy or rule has “impacted” large groups of protected people. Such as: a rule that would prohibit males from working as Flight Attendants. That is a rule that existed once and which was clearly based on gender. Those sorts of lawsuits are very rare even among the private sector workforce. Such lawsuits are even more rare among Federal employees. Since, unlike their private sector counter-parts, Federal workforce managers receive regular, frequent training on how to avoid managerial mistakes and possible acts of discrimination.

“Careerists“

The Project 2025 book gets into the bizarro world of politics when it warns against “careerists” who “lean heavily to the Left.” The book cites no source for this over-the-top claim. The authors then claim they need new job descriptions that avoid veteran preferences and other preference categories. Project 2025, p. 80. That is just an odd statement. Veterans actually hew to the political right if anything. Simply based on my personal experience in the military for 28 years and having lived in San Antonio, Texas, a Federal workforce dominated city, Federal workers come in all flavors. In the military, we worked with Federal workers wherever we had to reserve a firing range or a training area.

Veteran Preferences

Federal workers cannot be categorized one way or the other. I would like to see a serious study, but in my experience, most are conservative – simply because so many are veterans or are family members of veterans. Indeed, if you want to hire a new civil service employee at Ft. Cavazaos, Texas or Ft. Moore, Georgia, you would be hard pressed to hire someone who was not a veteran or related to a veteran. This is just a strange claim to make – and one for which the authors cite no authority or study.

And, of course, as a veteran, I agree with veteran preferences. Veterans make wonderful employees. And, for some vets, returning from war, job searching is a monumental task. They have earned some extra respect.