If you think firing poorly performing federal employees is too hard, you are not alone. Most federal employees agree. Now President Biden has made this problem worse. New regulations will make dismissals of poor-performing and subversive employees even more difficult. The rule reinforces removal restrictions and prohibits the reclassification of federal bureaucrats. This broad regulatory change was built specifically to block the reinstatement of Trump-era reforms. The deep state will soon become even less accountable.
The federal employee dismissal process is broken. Agencies take six months to a year to remove poor performers, followed by lengthy appeals that often result in reinstatement with back pay. If the employee wins, agencies must typically cover their attorney fees — at rates of $400 to $1,000 per hour. This makes removing employees for even the worst offenses expensive and uncertain.
For example, the Department of Justice suspended two prosecutors who withheld exculpatory evidence from a U.S. senator’s defense team. The federal judge overseeing the case said he had “never seen such mishandling or misconduct.” Nonetheless, the prosecutors appealed and got the suspensions overturned on a technicality. The government restored two months of back wages and paid out $643,000 in attorney fees.
This dysfunction is all too common. Removing problematic employees is difficult in every federal agency. Just one-half of 1 percent of tenured federal employees were fired in 2023 for poor performance or misconduct.
Surveys show that federal employees themselves object to this system. Half report chronic poor performance in their unit, and most don’t believe their agency effectively addresses poor performers. Fewer than half of federal career supervisors feel confident they could dismiss an employee for serious misconduct. Just a quarter believe they could remove a poor performer. Federal employees recognize the system is broken.
Unfortunately, this dysfunction empowers bad actors, and it is not uncommon for career employees to inject partisanship into their official duties.
Hellbound and Down 