Beyer statement on Trump threat to fire OPM workers

Rep. Don Beyer issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s threat to furlough or fire 150 federal workers unless its demands to eliminate the Office of Personnel Management are met within 11 days.

“I have come to expect abuse and horrific maltreatment of the federal workforce from the Trump Administration, but I have never seen anything like this. Threatening to fire or furlough American civil servants unless Congress gives into their demands is beyond the pale. The White House is only resorting to hostage-taking because the Administration could not substantiate the need for this plan before Congress last month, but Congress will not be bullied like this. Let me say this very clearly to the President and his team: this is not the way to get what you want.”

Beyer told Acting OPM Director Margaret Weichert during an Oversight hearing in May that he was “very skeptical” about the idea of trying to solve the problems of a struggling organization by “moving it into a larger bureaucracy.”