Republicans plan to take on civil service

WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they long have railed against by eroding job protections and shaving benefits federal workers have received for a generation.

Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government's dime and less generous pensions are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.

These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. But Trump's election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in 'waste, fraud and abuse” has conservatives optimistic they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the civil service was created to remove political patronage from federal jobs.

'You have the country moving to the right and being much more anti-Washington than it was,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., a leading Trump adviser who serves on the president-elect's transition team.

'We're going to have to get the country to understand how big the problem is, the human costs of it and why it's absolutely essential to reform,” said Gingrich.

He predicted that Stephen Bannon, a former Breitbart News chief who helped steer Trump's campaign and is now one of his most influential advisers, would lead the effort.

Breitbart headlines provide a possible insight into his views. 'Number of Government Employees Now Surpasses Manufacturing Jobs by 9,977,000,” the website said in November, though there are 2.1 million federal civilian employees.

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill said their first priority would be making it easier to fire employees regarded as incompetent or who break the rules.

'It's nearly impossible to fire somebody,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 'When the overwhelming majority do a good job and the one bad apple is there viewing pornography, I want people to be held accountable.”

Chaffetz said he plans to push through wholesale changes to the retirement benefits federal workers receive, by shifting to a 401(k)-style plan for new employees.

The proposals go hand in hand with Trump's promise to shrink the size and reach of government, from eliminating some agencies outright to lifting regulations and running the bureaucracy with fewer people.

Gingrich said the Trump administration probably would look for guidance from GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who stripped public employee unions of most of their collective-bargaining rights and forced workers to pay more into their pensions and for health care in what became a bitter political fight.

The White House also can look for lessons learned from policies advocated by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

As Indiana governor, he battled public employee unions and approved pay raises for state workers who receive good performance reviews.

'The most immediate worry is: How are we going to shrink government?” asked William Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the third-largest federal union. 'Are we going to lay people off? Eliminate whole agencies or do it through attrition?”

Trump has promised that in his first 100 days he will freeze hiring by not replacing employees who leave. The military and employees in public health and safety roles would be exempt.

He has pledged to eliminate two regulations for every new one and shut down the Education Department and parts of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But he also wants a military with more ships, planes and troops. And he has said he wants to triple the number of immigration enforcement agents and beef up the border patrol.