WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman James R. Walkinshaw (VA-11) issued the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s proposed Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rule changing federal reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures:
“For more than a year, the Trump Administration has attacked and intentionally traumatized federal employees—driving chaos across agencies and a workforce that keeps this country running.
Now, OPM plans to remove long-standing RIF protections by downgrading the role of seniority in the removal process, expanding who can be excluded from RIF procedures, and weighing only recent performance ratings—at the same time, the Administration is making those ratings easier to manipulate. This is not about merit—it’s about rigging the process so that the Trump Administration has free rein to dismantle a non-partisan civil service and fire any non-political, career employee that they arbitrarily deem as 'disloyal.'
This is a direct threat to the integrity of the civil service and to the quality of services Americans pay for with their tax dollars and rely on every day. I will continue to fight to protect federal employees and the nonpartisan workforce our democracy depends on.”
