He says it’s an ‘impediment to efficient government.’
Washington DC (KM) One Maryland lawmaker is strongly against President Trump’s executive order freezing federal hiring. Senator Ben Cardin (D) calls it “an impediment to efficient government.”
“It’s actually ends up costing more money for the inefficiencies it causes when we lose key employees to carry out a mission,” he says. “We’ve already reduced the federal workforce. It’s the smallest per capita in modern history.”
Cardin says this reduction means the federal government cannot replace an employee who leaves, and that makes it difficult to carrying out an agency’s functions. “If we need someone to protect air traffic, we can’t hire another air traffic controller. We need someone to deal with TSA and we can’t hire someone in that agency. And the work being done at Fort Detrick, critically important to our national security, the civilian workforce could be jeopardized by this hiring freeze,” he says.
In the end, Cardin says this hiring freeze could end up costing the federal government more money than it would have saved by not filling a vacant position. “If You’re responsible for air traffic control and you don’t have the key person and you have to delay and cancel several flights, that costs a lot of money. If you are responsible for food safety and you don’t have the person in there who can do that particular test, and perhaps you have to contract that out to a private enterprise, that could end up costing you more money,” says Cardin.
Senator Cardin says there’s not much Congress can do to stop President Trump’s executive order, but he says he and his colleagues will fight to protect federal workers. “They’ve already made a lot of sacrifices. They’ve had freezes. They’ve have sequestration. They’ve had government shutdowns. They’ve been asked to do more with fewer employees. And I can tell you there are a lot of members here in Congress that will do everything they can to help our federal workforce,” he says.
Cardin says a larger percentage of Maryland’s workforce is employed by the federal government.
By Kevin McManus