U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) on Oct. 25 proposed his 100th piece of legislation: a bill that would prevent career federal bureaucrats from actively resisting the directives and policies of a presidential administration.
“Career unelected bureaucrats cannot be allowed to undermine the agenda of any future president,” Rep. Pfluger said. “We must ensure that the network of federal employees that brazenly carried out resistance activities under the first Trump administration is not unleashed again.”
Such resistance activities included withholding information from appointees, deliberately slowing policy implementation, insubordination, and leaking sensitive information to the media, according to Rep. Pfluger.
The congressman sponsored the Stop Resistance Activities by Federal Employees (STRAFE) Act, H.R. 10053, to ensure that federal employees are compliant with the decisions of an elected president, according to a bill summary provided by his staff.
If enacted, H.R. 10053 would mandate specific training for federal employees that outlines prohibited activities intended to obstruct or undermine the directives of the sitting administration, and would penalize federal employees who engage in resistance activities against the administration, on par with Hatch Act violations.
Additionally, the bill would establish an external complaint reporting process, bypassing the traditional Inspector General channels within agencies, to ensure a more transparent system, and require periodic reports from each federal agency to the Executive Office of the President, providing updates on complaints and status of actions taken against those engaging in resistance activities, the summary says.