Thom Tillis
U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) called on the Obama administration to enact the first hiring freeze on career civil servant positions during a presidential transition.
In a letter to President Obama, the senators asked the administration to consider establishing a new precedent by enacting a hiring freeze on civil servant positions outside public health and safety during the presidential transition.
The practice of converting a political appointee to a career civil servant position, known as “burrowing in,” has occurred more than 300 times since 2001, the senators noted.
“Not only is ‘burrowing in’ unfair to applicants without an inside connection, it further contributes to the possibility that federal workers may attempt to undermine the policies of the new president,” Tillis and Johnson wrote.
“We respectfully encourage (the president) to consider the aforementioned concerns and also consider the implementation of a hiring freeze on all career civil servant positions, except those that involve public health or safety, until the end of (his) term. Doing so not only will be a gesture of bipartisanship and goodwill, we hope it also will set a precedent for future presidential transitions.”
The Obama administration transferred 69 political appointees to career civilian jobs from 2010 to 2015, with 17 of the conversions not receiving the required prior approval from the Office of Personnel Management, a Government Accountability Office report found.