'Do You Have A Preconceived Notion That Federal Employees Are All Bad?': Rand Paul Grills OPM Noms

2 days ago

At today's Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned top Office of Personnel Management nominees.

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Transcript

00:00outrageous behavior from federal employees and reminds me of my favorite

00:03one this person was second in charge at the EPA in the Obama administration I

00:08can't remember his name he went to jail eventually but for about a decade he was

00:12telling his his superiors at work well you know I'll be missing a lot of work

00:16and I won't be here a lot of times because you know I also work for the CIA

00:20and I didn't realize people work for the EPA and the CI at the same time but

00:26nobody ever called the CIA to ask him if he worked there he did this for a

00:30decade in the end I think he owed over a million dollars that he had to pay back

00:33in salary and I think he went to jail but it went on for a decade and he just

00:37simply told people but we had a shutdown and during the shutdown they actually

00:41did some of the things you're supposed to do they actually looked at his

00:44worksheet he hadn't been there in six months and they're like oh yeah he works

00:47for the CIA well has anybody ever called the CIA I called they'd never heard of

00:51him so the outrageous stuff goes on and you know I'm glad we're shaking it up

00:55I'm glad we're doing this but I guess one of the things I wanted to point out

00:59is that you know mr. Ewing you've worked most of your career if not all your

01:04career for the federal government so do you have a preconceived notion that

01:08federal employees are all bad senator thanks for the question and I'm here to

01:13assure you I don't work for the CIA so but I'm in my 20s to reference senator

01:19Moreno a little earlier no I don't have a preconceived notion that same question

01:23for mr. Cooper do you have a preconceived notion no I I don't and

01:27again you know as we've discussed look this is exactly why a system

01:29accountability matters we want the very best people to show up every day and do

01:33their best and we should have an environment that enables that but it

01:36goes back to the question you know the the minority made this point that will

01:39people being fired have just been promoted but if you're running a

01:43business let's say not the government a business and it were losing two trillion

01:47dollars a year maybe some good people would have to be let go right I mean in

01:51order to right the ship you have to let go some people so I don't think it's in

01:54it's a conviction of you as a person or the Trump administration if some people

01:59who got a promotion plus there is a question we're too many people being

02:03promoted or were people being promoted to try to protect them being from being

02:06fired but it isn't I think a accurate assumption to say oh we hate all the

02:12federal employees I'm a federal employee there are good people who work for the

02:15federal government and even some good people will have to probably let go in

02:20downsizing of things and you know I just think it's important that people not go

02:26away with the message that we're all Republicans are against all federal

02:29employees we have many good federal employees here that work for us you know

02:33and they have worked in government so I think that's not true with regard to

02:38like the concept of collective bargaining though you know we have at

02:42times for our history thought that people who provide like the military or

02:46our security we won't have collective bargaining there because we can't have

02:49soldiers going on strike we've had the same sort of thought with air traffic

02:52controllers and Reagan fired him famously at one time because he said you

02:56can't just have them walk off the job so while collective bargaining is not

03:00something I'm opposed to in fact I think there's some areas of our economy I'd

03:03like to see more collective bargaining for consumers on drug prices things like

03:08that there's ways that collectively we can drive prices down or drive wages up

03:12if that may be but it doesn't mean we're gonna we need to have collective

03:16bargaining everywhere the right to strike and yet to be careful for many

03:20many decades for most of the history of the country you didn't have unions in

03:23government and the reasoning was that government was essential you had to have

03:27them so you can't have government go on strike you can't have Congress go on

03:30strike and not show up you can't have our employees show up and so all of our

03:34employees as mr. you said are at will one of the things I've tried to do is

03:39see if there any ways we can nibble around the corners and I've always

03:42thought of this bills a small bill with large sort of expectations we call it

03:50bonuses for cost cutters and what we try to do is take the incentives that you

03:54have in private business where you get rewarded if your company makes more

03:57money it's hard to tell the government makes more money but if you could cut

04:00costs government loses less money and then reward those people individually

04:04there is a little bit of this but there isn't quite enough of it so we have a

04:08bill called bonuses for cost cutters to expand it we've occasionally gotten some

04:13bipartisan support often though the debate runs this way that they say well

04:18that's fine we'll give the bonus to the employee if they if you're in charge of

04:22a twelve million dollar budget you save a million we'll give you ten thousand

04:25dollars I think that's a great idea but they want the million dollars to still

04:28be spent and my whole point is if you save a million let's send it back to the

04:32Treasury which will get back into this debate over impoundment we're not going

04:36to solve that today but ultimately it's going it's going to have to be solved

04:41and in the meantime as I've told you both privately and everybody who listen

04:45we hope the administration will send us back a rescission package it's a special

04:50vote it's a simple majority everybody talks about the budget budget

04:54reconciliation all these things we can do that's true there's also something

04:58called rescission that comes out of the Impoundment Act and it's a simple

05:01majority way to cut money the president is very popular the way he won a

05:05well-deserved election and I hope the president will use his political capital

05:11to come to us and say you know two trillion dollars in debt the way we get

05:15rid of it is once you accept this money back take it back and once we do it'll

05:19send this message the the public's behind him the really the public

05:22frankly mostly is behind the you know not spending two million dollars doing

05:28sex changes in Guatemala not spending three million dollars on girl centric

05:33climate change you know not spending four million dollars on social media

05:36influencers in Ukraine the public is with us on this but I've been advocating

05:41to have it sent back you know have it sent back to rescission so it's voted on

05:45by Congress and it has some permanence can I just quickly respond on on

05:50rescissions the director has been very public the president as well very clear

05:55to us at OMB we will be sending a rescissions package at least one to

06:00Congress we do expect success we are excited about the partnership and we're

06:05looking forward the president being able to sign into law actual provable

06:10spending eliminations through the process of rescission and we'll end with

06:15this mr. Cooper I don't know if you've heard of one of your predecessors his

06:19name was Don Devine and he was OPM director for Reagan and he's a friend of

06:25mine he's written several books one of his books is America's Way Back I highly

06:28recommend it sort of the the thesis from my point of view is that freedom

06:33requires tradition or another word for tradition is virtue Washington talked

06:38about this a lot of our founding fathers and the reason you need virtue and you

06:42need some kind of religious foundation or a sense of right and wrong is that

06:46there aren't enough policemen we don't think about it it's like well you know

06:50why do people not steal because they'll go to jail some people don't steal

06:53because they'll go to jail but most of us don't steal because we think it's

06:56wrong but if 98% of us quit believing in right and wrong there are dangers to

07:00that and it's just the importance and government can't create that that's

07:03something you accept personally your religion your tradition your faith right

07:07and wrong maybe a big fan of Don Devine's and maybe when you're done

07:10you'll go on to write famous books like Don Devine we wish you both we would wish

07:15you both success thank you mr. chairman

07:20um the nominees have filed responses to biographical and financial questionnaires

07:27answered pre-hearing questions submitted by the committee and had their financial

07:30statements reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics without objection this

07:34all this information will be made part of the hearing record with the exception

07:38of the financial data which are on file with the committee the hearing record

07:42will remain open till 5 p.m. today for the submission of statements and

07:45questions for the record we are adjourned thank you very much

'Do You Have A Preconceived Notion That Federal Employees Are All Bad?': Rand Paul Grills OPM Noms

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