PROJECT 2025 –  #16 – July 20, 2024

 

New more concise, simplified format.

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.
 
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) - part 1
By Ken Cuccinelli – see Wikipedia bio below
 
PRIMARY RECOMMENDATION: 

Dismantle DHS, create a stand-alone cabinet-level agency for border and immigration issues, move FEMA, Secret Service, and Coast Guard, and privatize TSA. Change Cybersecurity Agency (CISA) which the Left has weaponized to censor speech and affect elections
 

RECOMMENDATIONS IF DHS STAYS AS IS
 
Privatize FEMA National Flood Insurance Program. Shift the majority of costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.
 
Remove all unions in the department for national security purposes.

Due to the length of time to confirm appointees, make them “acting” to move on the first day.
 
Remove/replace all current members of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee

Combine Border Security and Immigration Agency
 
Use military and aviation personnel to aid department
 
Restart/expand horseback-mounted Border Patrol. Clear the records and personnel files of those falsely accused by Secretary Mayorkas of whip­ping migrants and issue a formal apology on behalf of DHS and CBP.
 
The single nationwide standard for detention and flexibility is to use large numbers of temporary facilities such as tents.
 
Order ICE to stop closing out pending immigration cases that allowed thousands of illegal aliens and other immigration violators to go free in the United States. 
 
ICE should be directed to take custody of all aliens with records for felonies, crimes of violence, DUIs, previous removals, and any other crime that is considered a national security or public safety threat as defined under current laws 

Work to eliminate or significantly reduce the number of visas issued to foreign students from enemy nations
 
ICE should also remove self-imposed limitations on its nationwide jurisdiction.
 
Alien smuggling, trafficking, and cross-border crime as defined under Title 85 and Title 186 should be the focus of ICE operations. 
 
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) should be identified as being primarily responsible for enforcing civil immigration regulations, including the civil arrest, detention, and removal of immigration violators anywhere in the United States, without warrant where appropriate, subject only to the civil warrant requirements of the INA where appropriate .
 

Written by Ken Cuccinelli

BIO-Wikipedia: BS-UVA, JD-George Mason; served as the senior official performing the duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2019 to 2021;  rejects the scientific consensus on climate change; opposes gun rights limits, ,abortion, homosexuality; On August 12, 2019, Cuccinelli announced a revised regulation, to go into effect October 15, 2019, expanding the public charge requirements for legal immigration. Green cards and visas can be denied if people are likely to need federal, state and local government benefits including food stamps, housing vouchers and Medicaid; Cuccinelli defended the deployment of federal agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear to Portland, Oregon, where they picked up protestors and took them into unmarked vehicles

 

Stay tuned for next posting #17 – 2^nd in series of Department of Homeland Security

Please read, comment and pass it on

 PROJECT 2025 –  #15 – July 18, 2024

SPECIAL NOTE: The blog is now more streamlined and condensed 

DISCLAIMER: This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.

 

 

THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE – Part 3

 

US Space Force
The U.S. Space Force (USSF) was established to assure continuous global and theater combat support from space, to deter attacks against U.S. space assets, and to prevail in space should deterrence fail. Reestablish offensive capabilities. Expand to provide early warning of attacks. Declare that US will operate in space. Explore a Space Force Academy.
 
US Cyber Command
Conduct offensive operations at tactical/strategic levels. End USCYBERCOM’s participation in federal efforts to “fortify” U.S. elections to eliminate the perception that DOD is engaging in partisan politics. Use cyber/ EW in retaliation for foreign cyberattacks and/or EW actions against U.S. infrastructure and citizens.
 
Special Operations Forces
America’s war in Afghanistan was a failure but Special Forces were effective in Counterterrorism. Irregular warfare should be proactive by redefining it as critical.
 
Nuclear Deterrence
Replace all parts of nuclear triad over next decade. Deploy sea-launched nuclear missiles over next decade. Accelerate production of plutonium. Restore readiness to test nuclear weapons in Nevada.
 
Missile Defense
Reject claims made by the Left that missile defense is destabilizing while acknowledging that Russia and China are developing their own advanced missile defense systems. Strengthen Homeland ballistic missile defense. As the Ukraine conflict amply demonstrates, U.S. regional missile defense capabilities are very limited. The United States has been unable to supply our partners reliably with any capabilities, and the number and types of regional missile defense platforms are less than the U.S. needs for its own defense. Invest in future advanced missile defense technologies like directed energy or space-based missile defense that could defend against more numerous missile threats. 
 
Written by Christopher Miller

[BIO – Wikipedia - BA, GWU and MA, Naval War College; Colonel (ret.) US Special Forces; 8/20 – Director National Counterterrorism Center; 9/20 – Acting DOD Secretary]
[HISTORICAL NOTE – 5 January 2021 “(Miller) issued orders which prohibited deploying DC National Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval…after rioters breached the Capitol Police perimeter, Miller waited more than three hours before authorizing the deployment of the National Guard.”]

 

Stay tuned for next posting – July 20, 2024 – Homeland Security, part 1
Please read, comment, pass it on.

PROJECT 2025 –  #14 – July 16, 2024

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.

THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE – Part 3

 

US ARMY

 Reforms
1.  Increase the army budget to remain the world's preeminent land power.
2.  Increase the Army  by 50,000 to handle two major regional contingencies simultaneously.
3.  Stop using the army as a test bed for social evolution.
4.  Revamp Army school curricula to concentrate on preparation for large-scale land 
5. Address the underlying causal issues driving increasing army suicide rates, which have surpassed pre-World War Two rates and are now eclipsing the rate among civilians.
  

US NAVY
Today, the People’s Republic of China Peo­ple’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) can challenge the USN’s ability to accomplish its mission in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
 
US NAVY -Reforms
1. Build a fleet of more than 355 ships.
2. Harness willingness to tolerate risk so that “good enough” systems can be fielded rapidly.

US Air Force
                  The U.S. Air Force today lacks a force structure with the lethality, survivabil­ity, and capacity to fight a major conflict with a great power like China, deter nuclear threats, and meet its other operational requirements. The result is an Air Force that is the oldest, smallest, and least ready in its history. This makes for a reduction of 996 air­craft by 2027. The net result is a force that is smaller, older, and less ready at a time when demand is burgeoning.
 
US Air Force – Reforms
1.     Adopt a two-war force defense strategy with scenarios 
2.     Increase the Air Force budget by 5 percent annually
3.     Increase F-35A procurement to 60 to 80 per year.
4.     Build the capacity for B-21 production rate of 15 to 18 aircraft per year 
5.     Develop and buy larger quantities of advanced mid-range stealth weapons 
6.     Accelerate the development and production of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile in light of Chinas nuclear modernization breakout.
7.     Produce the next generation of air dominant system of systems.
8.   Achieve moving target engagement capability and capacity against sea, surface, and ground mobile targets.
 

US Marines
                  The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is the maritime land force of the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy. It serves a critical role as an expedition­ary amphibious force that can project power from sea to shore  In addition, the USMC spent nearly two decades fighting coun­terinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and developed capabilities that were specifically geared to those fights but have limited utility in scenarios involving evenly matched and advanced enemies or amphibious operations that are neces­sary for the projection of naval power.
 
US Marines – Reforms
1.     Transform USMC force structure
2.     Systems or equipment that are better suited to heavier U.S. Army units.
3.     Increase the number of rocket artillery batteries, upgraded light armored vehicle companies, unmanned aerial systems, and anti-air systems, develop long-range strike missiles and anti-ship missiles for the Corps, and modernize USMC infantry equipment.
4.     Develop and produce light amphibious warships to support more distributed amphibious operations, especially in the Pacific.
5.     Maintained between 28 and 31 larger amphibious warships, as opposed to the 25 specified in current Navy shipbuilding plans.
 

This section was written by Christopher Miller

[BIO – Wikipedia - BA, GWU and MA, Naval War College; Colonel (ret.) US Special Forces; 8/20 – Director National Counterterrorism Center; 9/20 – Acting DOD Secretary]
[HISTORICAL NOTE – 5 January 2021 “(Miller) issued orders which prohibited deploying DC National Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval…after rioters breached the Capitol Police perimeter, Miller waited more than three hours before authorizing the deployment of the National Guard.”]

Stay tuned for Blog #15 – July 18, 2024 - The Department of Defense – part 4
Remember, please – read, comment, pass it on

 PROJECT 2025 –  #13 – July 14, 2024

BLOG DISCLAIMER

This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.

 SPECIAL NOTE: I RESTRUCTURED THIS BLOG SO THAT POSTS ARE SHORTER AND MORE TO THE POINT

THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE – Part 2

DOD Personnel
                  The men and women of America's armed forces are the most critical component of our National Defense strategy, but in recent years, they have been overextended, undervalued, and insufficiently resourced. Young civilians who would thrive in a military environment are disenfranchised when educators and influencers discourage them from learning about military service and preparing for the honor of wearing America's uniform.

DOD Personnel - Needed reforms
1.     Increase the number of Junior ROTC programs in secondary schools. 
2.     Exceptions for individuals who are already predisposed to require medical treatment (for example, HIV positive or suffering from gender dysphoria) should be removed, and those with gender dysphoria should be expelled from military service. Physical fitness requirements should be based on the occupational field without consideration of gender, race, ethnicity, or orientation 
3.     Strengthen protections for chaplains to carry out their ministry according to the tenets of their faith 
4.     Reinstate servicemembers to active duty who were discharged for not receiving the COVID vaccine, restore their appropriate rank, and provide back pay 
5.     Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.
6.  Audit the course offerings at military academies to remove Marxist indoctrination, eliminate tenure for academic professionals, and apply the same rules to instructors that are applied to other DOD contracting personnel. 
7.  Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for servicemembers should be ended. 
8.  Audit all curricula and health policies in DOD schools for military families, remove all inappropriate materials, and reverse inappropriate policies.

DOD Intelligence
Overall, “[t]he DoD provides 86 percent of the personnel who conduct intelligence activities, both military and civilian.” If they continue on their current path, however, both the DIE and the Intelligence Com­munity writ large will continue to provide inaccurate and politicized intelligence assessments that mislead policymakers.

 

DOD Intelligence- Needed Reforms

Align, collect, collection and analysis with vital national interest (countering China and Russia)
Rebuild human intelligence (HUMINT) and counterintelligence (CI).
Alignment between DOD and DHS both to improve the defense  national border integrity and to develop vital information that enables defense against foreign targeted disruptions.

Written By Christopher Miller

[BIO – Wikipedia - BA, GWU and MA, Naval War College; Colonel (ret.) US Special Forces; 8/20 – Director National Counterterrorism Center; 9/20 – Acting DOD Secretary]
[HISTORICAL NOTE – 5 January 2021 “(Miller) issued orders which prohibited deploying DC National Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval…after rioters breached the Capitol Police perimeter, Miller waited more than three hours before authorizing the deployment of the National Guard.”] 

 

Stay tuned for Blog #14 – The Department of Defense – part 3

Remember, please – read, comment, pass it on

PROJECT 2025 –  #12 - July 12, 2024

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.
With this section, I have created a more streamlined, concise version for convenience
 
SECTION TWO – THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE – Part 1
            The Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest part of our federal government. It has almost 3 million people serving in uniform or civilian capacity worldwide and consumes approximately $850 billion annually—more than 50% of our government’s discretionary spending. It is also deeply troubled… Wasteful spending, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline, and program execution, a profoundly unserious equity agenda, and vaccine mandates have taken a serious toll.
 
DOD Policy
U.S. defense strategy must identify China unequivocally as the top priority for U.S. defense planning while modernizing and expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal and sustaining an efficient and effective counterterrorism enterprise. The reality is that achieving these goals will require more spending on defense.
            We need to:
1.     Prioritize US Forces to defeat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan before allocating resources to other missions.
2.     Make burden sharing a central part of a US defense strategy.
3.     Transform NATO so that US allies are capable of fielding the majority of conventional forces while relying on the US primarily for our nuclear deterrent.
4.     Sustained support for Israel, even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air and missile defenses.
5.     Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea. 
6.     Prioritize enhancing the capability of allies and partners to take the lead in combating terrorism in their regions.
 
DOD Acquisition and Sustainment
U.S. forces should develop a faster timeline to develop weaponry and retire or terminate outdated, underperforming programs more rapidly. Decision-makers to stay within the law but bypass unnecessary departmental regulations that are not in the best interest of the government .
 
DOD Foreign Military Sales
The United States must regain its role as the “Arsenal of Democracy.” In fiscal year (FY) 2021, U.S. government foreign military sales (FMS) nosedived to a low of $34.8 billion from a record high of $55.7 billion in FY 2018. Ensure that senior U.S. military leadership emphasizes exportability in the initial development of defense systems that are both available and interoperable with our partners and allies. 
                  End Informal congressional notification or “tiered review” which is a hinderance to ensuring timely sales to our global partners. The tiered review process is not codified in law; it is merely a practice by which the Department of State provides a preview of prospective arms transfers before Congress is formally notified. 
 
DOD Personnel
The men and women of America's armed forces are the most critical component of our National Defense strategy, but in recent years, they have been overextended, undervalued, and insufficiently resourced. Their families helped them to carry their burden of service, but the assistance they received is disproportionately less than the sacrifices they make. Young civilians who would thrive in a military environment are disenfranchised when educators and influencers discourage them from learning about military service and preparing for the honor of wearing America's uniform.
 
DOD Personnel - Needed reforms
1.     Improve recruiting by suspending the use of private medical records of potential recruits at Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS), creating unnecessary delays and unwarranted rejections
2.     Improve military recruiters’ access to secondary schools and require completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery —the military entrance examination—by all students in schools that receive federal funding 
3.     Exceptions for individuals who are already predisposed to require medical treatment (for example, HIV positive or suffering from gender dysphoria) should be removed, and those with gender dysphoria should be expelled from military service. 
4.     Strengthen protections for chaplains to carry out their ministry according to the tenets of their faith 
5.     Codify language to instruct senior military officers (three and four stars) to make certain that they understand their primary duty to be ensuring the readiness of the armed forces, not pursuing a social engineering agenda. 
6.     Reinstate servicemembers to active duty who were discharged for not receiving the COVID vaccine, restore their appropriate rank, and provide back pay 
7.     Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.
8.     Audit the course offerings at military academies to remove Marxist indoctrination, eliminate tenure for academic professionals, and apply the same rules to instructors that are applied to other DOD contracting personnel. 
9.     Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for servicemembers should be ended. 
10.  Audit all curricula and health policies in DOD schools for military families, remove all inappropriate materials, and reverse inappropriate policies.
 
Written by Christopher Miller

[BIO – Wikipedia - BA, GWU and MA, Naval War College; Colonel (ret.) US Special Forces; 8/20 – Director National Counterterrorism Center; 9/20 – Acting DOD Secretary]

[HISTORICAL NOTE – 5 January 2021 “(Miller) issued orders which prohibited deploying DC National Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval…after rioters breached the Capitol Police perimeter, Miller waited more than three hours before authorizing the deployment of the National Guard.”]

PROJECT 2025 –  #11 - July 10, 2024

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.


CENTRAL PERSONNEL AGENCIES: MANAGING THE BUREAUCRACY – PART 2


Market-Based Pay and Benefits
official studies claim that federal employees are underpaid relative to the private sector by 20 percent or more. 
        Base salary is only one component of a federal employee’s total compensation. In addition to high starting wages, federal employees normally receive an annual cost-of-living adjustment (available to all employees) and generous scheduled raises known as step increases.
            The obvious solution to these discrepancies is to move closer to a market model for federal pay and benefits.
 
Reforming Federal Retirement Benefits
            Career civil servants enjoy retire­ment benefits that are nearly unheard of in the private sector. Federal employees retire earlier (normally at age 55 after 30 years), enjoy richer pension annuities, and receive automatic cost-of-living adjustments based on the areas in which they retire.     
 
Reductions-in-Force
            Reducing the number of federal employees seems an obvious way to reduce the overall expense of the civil service. But it is a challenge even to know which workers to cut. As mentioned, there are 2 million federal employees, but since budgets have exploded, so has the total number of personnel with nearly 10 times more federal contractors than federal employees. Contractors are less expensive because they are not entitled to high government pensions or benefits and are easier to fire and discipline. In addition, millions of state government employees work under federal grants, in effect administering federal programs; these cannot be cut directly. Moreover, four fac­tors determine the order in which employees are protected during layoffs: Tenure, Veterans’ preference, seniority, and performance in that order of importance. A determined president should insist that performance be first. 
 
Impenetrable Bureaucracy
            The GAO has identified almost a hundred actions that the executive branch or Congress could take to improve efficiency and effec­tiveness. Congress didn’t support them. OPM still needs to lead the way governmentwide in managing personnel properly even in any future smaller government.
 
Creating a Responsible Career Management Service
            The people elect a President who is charged by Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution with seeing that the laws are “faithfully executed” with his political appointees democratically linked to that legitimizing responsibility. An autonomous bureaucracy has neither independent constitutional status nor separate moral legitimacy. Therefore, career civil servants by themselves should not lead major policy changes and reforms. 
            Frustrated with these activities by top career executives, the Trump Adminis­tration issued an Executive Order  to make career professionals in positions that are not normally subject to change as a result of a presidential transition but who discharge significant duties and exercise significant discretion in formulating and implementing executive branch policy and programs an exception to the com­petitive hiring rules and examinations for career positions under a new Schedule F. It ordered the Director of OPM and agency heads to set procedures to prepare lists of such confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating positions and prepare procedures to create exceptions from civil service rules when careerists hold such positions, from which they can relocate back to the regular civil service after such service. The order was subsequently reversed by President Biden at the demand of the civil service associations and unions. It should be reinstated.
 
Managing Personnel in a Union Environment
            It was not until President John Kennedy that union representation in the federal government was recognized. President Carter created the Civil Service Reform Act. President Trump issued three executive orders in this regard: (1) encouraging agencies to renegotiate all union collective bargaining agreements to ensure consistency with the law and respect for management rights, (2) encouraging agencies to prevent union representatives from using official time preparing or pursuing grievances or from engaging in other union activity on government time, and (3) encouraging agencies both to limit labor grievances on removals from service or on challenging performance appraisals and to prioritize performance over seniority when deciding who should be retained following reductions-in-force. All were reversed by Biden Administration. They should be reinstated and Congress should consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place.
 
Fully Staffing the Ranks of Political Appointees
                  The President must rely legally on his top department and agency officials to run the government and on top White House staff employees to coordinate operations. Without this political leadership, the career civil service becomes empowered to lead the executive branch without democratic legitimacy.
                  After the 2016 election, President Trump faced special hostility from the opposition party and the media in getting his appointees confirmed or even considered by the Senate. Under the early PPO, the Trump Administration appointed fewer political appointees in its first few months in office than had been appointed in any recent presidency, partly because of historically high partisan congressional obstructions but also because several officials announced that they preferred fewer political appointees in the agencies as a way to cut federal spending.
                  Any new Administration would be wise to learn that it will need a full cadre of sound political appointees from the beginning if it expects to direct this enormous federal bureaucracy. If “personnel is policy” is to be our general guide, it would make sense to give the President direct supervision of the bureaucracy with the OPM Director available in his Cabinet.
 
A Reformed Bureaucracy
The specific deficiencies of the fed­eral bureaucracy—size, levels of organization, inefficiency, expense, and lack of responsiveness to political leadership—are rooted in the progressive ideology that unelected experts can and should be trusted to promote the general welfare in just about every area of social life. [To change this], the only real solution is for the national government to do less: to decentralize and privatize as much as possible.
 
 
Stay tuned for Blog #12 – Section Two – The Common Defense
Remember, please – read, comment, pass it on

For the record… this blog has been viewed 600 times… Thank you!!!
 

 PROJECT 2025 –  #10 – Chapter 3

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.

CENTRAL PERSONNEL AGENCIES: MANAGING THE BUREAUCRACY
By Donald Devine
[BIO Wikipedia: PhD, Syracuse; taught at UMaryland and Bellevue U; Office of Personnel Management head, Reagan Admin; Advisor, Sen. Bob Dole; adjunct scholar, Heritage Foundation since 1992]
Dennis Dean Kirk
[BIO: JD, Washburn University; Worked for Bush and Trump; Under Trump, senior position OPM; Project 2025, Associate Director for Personnel Policy.]
Paul Dans
[BIO – Paul Dans – Director, Project 2025; BA-MIT, JD-UVA ; private law practice for 20 years; Trump Administration, chief of staff, OPM.] 
 
                  “Personnel is policy” as a theme has been the fundamental principle guiding the government’s personnel management.
                  There are four major personnel organizations for the government:
 
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
                  OPM governs civil service. It is responsible for. Retirement, pay, health, training, federal unionization, suitability, and classification functions.
 
The Merit System Protection Board (MSPB)
                  The MSPB is the lead adjudicator for hearing and resolving cases and controversies for for 2.2 million federal employees.
 
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)
                  The FLRA hears appeals of agency personnel cases involving federal labor grievance procedures.
                  
Office of Special Counsel (OSC)
            The OSC serves as the investigator, mediator, publisher, and prosecutor before the MSPB with respect to agency and employees regarding prohibited person­nel practices, Hatch Act politicization, Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Actissues, and whistleblower complaints.
 
Two other agencies also work in this area:
 
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
                  The EEOC has general respon­sibility for reviewing charges of employee discrimination against all civil rights breaches.
 
While not a personnel agency per se, the General Services Administration (GSA) is charged with general supervision of contracting.Today, there are many more government contractors than civil service employees.
 
 
ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OPM: Managing the Federal Bureaucracy
            Since the turn of the 20th century, progressives have sought a system that could effectively select, train, reward, and guard from partisan influence the neutral scientific experts they believe are required to staff the national government and run the administrative state. Yet, as public frustration with the civil service has grown, generating calls to “drain the swamp,” it has become clear that their project has had serious unintended consequences. The modern merit system. Insulates civil servants from accountability. Making it almost impossible to fire all but the most incompetent of them. The Government Accountability Office, however, has reported that pay raises, within grade pay increases, and locality pay for regular employees and executives have become automatic rather than based on performance.
 
OPM: Merit Hiring in a Merit System
            For the past 34 years, the US Civil Service has been unable to distinguish consistently between strong and unqualified applicants for employment. Various tests have been used to evaluate candidates but courts have ruled that even without evidence of overt, intentional discrimination, such results may suggest discrimination. OPM must resolve this.
 
The Centrality of Performance Appraisal
            Currently, the government uses a Functioning appraisal system to reward good performance or correct poor performance. This is a very challenging ideal to implement successfully. 99.9% of employees were rated fully successful or above by their managers. How is this possible? Political executives should take an active role in supervising performance appraisals of career staff, not unduly delegate this responsibility to senior career managers, and be willing to reward and support good performers.
 
Merit Pay
            Performance appraisal must be tied to real consequences for success as well as failure. 90%. Of major US private companies use a system of merit pay. For performance. Based on some type of appraisal system. The federal government rates individuals on seniority rather than merit. Democratic Friends of the Employee unions resisted such a change in 1993 and no changes have happened since. Political executives should use existing pay, and especially fiscal awards, strategically to reward good performance to the degree allowed by law.
 
Making the Appeals Process Work
        The MSPB can and does handle all such matters, but it faces a backlog of an estimated 3,000 cases of people who were potentially wrongfully terminated or disciplined as far back as 2013. From 2017–2022 the MSPB lacked the quorum required to decide appeals. On the other hand, as of January 2023, the EEOC had a backlog of 42,000 cases. While federal employees win appeals relatively infrequently—MSPB adminis­trative judges have upheld agency decisions as much as 80 percent of the time—the real problem is the time and paperwork involved in the elaborate process that managers must undergo during appeals.
 
Stay tuned for Blog #11 – Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy – Part 2
Remember, please – read, comment, pass it on

 PROJECT 2025 –  #9

BLOG DISCLAIMER
This blog was created as a public service. It is a Cliff’s Notes version of the actual 900 pages of text found in PROJECT 2025. It is not a commentary. Most importantly - It DOES NOT reflect my opinion in any way.

 

Executive Office of the President – part 3
By Russ Vought

[Bio from Wikipedia – BA Weaton College, JD GWU. Acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, 2019-20. Founder, Center for Renewing America which is focused on combating critical race theory. In February 2023, the Center published a paper calling for a “dormant NATO, wherein Europe is the primary security provider of the European front.” Jeffrey Clark is the Center’s director of litigation]

 

NATIONAL SPACE COUNCIL (NSPC)

            Space projects and programs are risky, complex, expensive, and time consum­ing—although commercial space innovations are lowering costs and accelerating schedules. Nevertheless, while fiscal discipline should not be ignored, long-term policy stability is crucial to investors, innovators, industry, and agencies. Among the focuses are transitioning Inter­national Space Station operations to multiple, privately owned space platforms; and (most important) accelerating the acquisition and fielding of national security space capabilities in response to an increasingly aggressive China.

 

OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY (OSTP)

            The OSTP’s functions, as contained in the law, are to advise the President of scientific and technological considerations, evaluate the effectiveness of the federal effort, and generally lead and coordinate the federal government’s R&D programs. If science is being manipulated at the agencies to support separate political and institutional agendas, the President should increase the prominence of the OSTP’s Director either formally or informally.

            The President should also issue an executive order to reshape the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and related climate change research pro­grams. The USGCRP produces strategic plans and research (for example, the National Climate Assessment) that reduce the scope of legally proper options in presidential decision-making and in agency rulemakings and adjudications. The next President should critically analyze and, if required, refuse to accept any USGCRP assessment prepared under the Biden Administration.

            Finally, the next Administration will face a significant challenge in unwinding policies and procedures that are used to advance radical gender, racial, and equity initiatives under the banner of science. Similarly, the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding. As with other federal departments and agencies, the Biden administrations leveraging of the federal governments resources to further the Will agenda should be reversed and scrubbed from all policy manuals, guidance, documents, and agendas, and scientific excellence and innovation should be restored as the OSTP’s top priority.

 

COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (CEQ)

            The Council on Environmental Quality is the EOP component with the prin­cipal task of administering the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The CEQ also coordinates environmental policy across the federal government. The President should issue an executive order establishing a Senior Advisor to coordinate the policy development and implementation of relevant energy and environment policy by officials across the and abolishing the existing Office of Domestic Cli­mate Policy. The President should eliminate the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) and by executive order should end the use of SCC analysis.

 

OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY (ONDCP)

                  The next President’s top drug policy priority must be to address the current fentanyl crisis and reduce the number of overdoses and fatalities. This crisis resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans in 2021. The National Drug Control Program agencies represented a total of $41 billion in fiscal year 2022. Whereas the position for overseeing budget activities is traditionally held by a career official, it is imperative that a political appointee lead the ONDCP budget office to ensure coordination between the OMB Program Associate Director and the ONDCP budgetary appointee. it is vital that the ONDCP Director ensure in the immediate term that these grant programs are funding the President’s drug control priorities and not woke nonprofits with leftist policy agendas. Thus, the President must insure that the ONDCP is managed by political appointees who are committed to the Administration’s agenda and not acquiesce to management by political or career military personnel who oversaw the prior Administration’s ONDCP.

GENDER POLICY COUNCIL (GPC) 

            The President should immediately revoke Executive Order 1402041 and every policy, including subregulatory guidance documents, produced on behalf of or related to the establishment or promotion of the Gender Policy Council and its subsidiary issues. Abolishing the Gender Policy Council would eliminate central promotion of abortion (“health services”); comprehensive sexuality education (“education”); and the new woke gender ideology, which has as a principal tenet “gender affirming care” and “sex-change” surgeries on minors. In addition to elim­inating the council, developing new structures and positions will have the dual effect of demonstrating that promoting life and strengthening the family is a pri­ority while also facilitating more seamless coordination and consistency across the U.S. government. 

                  Specifically, the President should appoint a position/point of contact with the rank of Special Assistant to the President or higher to coordinate and lead the Pres­ident’s domestic priorities on issues related to life and family in cooperation with the Domestic Policy Council. This position would be responsible for facilitating meetings, discussions, and agreements among personnel; coordinating Adminis­tration policy; and ensuring agency support for implementation of policies related to the promotion of life and family in the United States.

Stay tuned for Blog #10 – Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy
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