November 14, 2016 1:20PM # Trump and Federal Workers By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) --- SHARE The incoming Trump administration has indicated that it will make reforms to the federal workforce. Here are a few places where the administration may focus its efforts: - **Freezing Hiring**: Trump’s [Contract with the American Voter](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-delivers-groundbreaking-contract-for-the-american-vote1) promised “a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).” As a goodwill gesture, Trump should also shrink the army of [almost 4,000 political appointees](http://presidentialtransition.org/blog/posts/160316_help-wanted-4000-appointees.php) in his administration in order to speed agency decisionmaking. - **Increasing Firing**: Trump is famous for firing people on his TV show, and he will likely support reforms to increase federal firing. On the campaign trail, [Trump talked about](http://www.fedsmith.com/2015/11/02/trump-promises-to-fire-corrupt-and-incompetent-executives-in-va-reform-plan/) firing VA executives, and his advisors [Chris Christie](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/07/22/christie-on-trumps-plan-to-fire-feds-faster-and-clean-out-obamas-people/?tid=a_inl) and [Newt Gingrich](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/09/trump-win-stuns-federal-employee-leaders-worried-about-his-policies/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na) talked about the importance of civil service reforms to increase firing. [Reforms are needed](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/bureaucratic-failure): federal civilian workers are fired at just one-sixth the rate that private-sector workers are. Members of the federal senior executive service are fired at just one-twentieth the rate that corporate CEOs are. - **Reducing Retirement Benefits**. Federal wages and benefits are higher, on average, than in the private sector, but it is on benefits that federal compensation really stands out. [The *WaPo*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/09/trump-and-the-federal-workforce-five-key-issues/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_3_na) has discussed various GOP proposals to reduce federal benefits. [My favored reform](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-worker-pay) is to repeal the old-fashioned defined-benefit pension plan. That would leave federal workers with a generous defined-contribution plan, which is the standard in the private sector. - **Reforming Federal Unions**. One reform was mentioned in the [Republican platform](https://www.gop.com/platform/reforming-government/): “union representatives should not be allowed to engage in union-related activities while on the public’s time.” Republicans on the Hill [have been investigating](http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2016/02/republicans-renew-push-more-data-official-time/126019/) the use and abuse of such “official time” in federal agencies. My essays “[Bureaucratic Failure in the Federal Government](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/bureaucratic-failure)” and “[Reducing the Costs of Federal Worker Pay and Benefits](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-worker-pay)” should provide useful information to the Trump team in assembling its workforce reform agenda. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).