The Republican chair of the House Agriculture Committee said he’s against the Trump administration’s plans to thin the federal workforce, an issue his panel focused on in a hearing Tuesday.
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) called the deferred resignation plan for workers “shortsighted” and said the result could be the opposite of the efficiency the Trump administration says it’s seeking. Such a plan, many warn, would rob the Agriculture Department of experienced employees to implement the five-year farm bill lawmakers hope to pass this year.
“I’m one that’s never agreed with early buyouts, whether it’s in the private sector or certainly the government sector, because you lose your efficiency, you lose the people with wisdom,” Thompson said in a recent interview with POLITICO’s E&E News.
Few House Republicans have raised concerns with the administration’s slash-and-burn approach to spending cuts, the shuttering of agencies and culling of workers — all being led by billionaire Elon Musk. Democrats have almost universally decried the administration’s actions. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to find even more cuts to the workforce.
