Trump Says He’ll Move Thousands of Federal Workers Out of Washington. Here’s What Happened the First Time He Tried.
www.propublica.org
The Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters moved from the capital to Colorado in 2020, causing an exodus of leadership. If elected, Trump plans to use the same tactic across more of the federal government.
  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    65·
    29 days ago

    The GOP has been claiming the government doesn’t work for decades.

    They get elected, sabotage the system, and then claim that their incompetence proves how bad the bureaucracy is.

        • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
          9·
          29 days ago

          Because if and when we get into a position to deal consequences to these freaks, I don’t want them to be able to say they were just goofy little guys who got in over their head. They may have many bouts of incompetence, but that’s not the core problem.

          The problem is that the GOP and the people who make it are, willfully, a traitorous, criminal, and rogue organization that is no longer interested in playing by the rules.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
    252·
    29 days ago

    It’s not a bad idea to decentralize the federal government as a way to make telework pretty much impossible to walk back on, you get a more diverse and representative public service that’s closer to the population it should be working for.

    But I don’t think that’s Trump’s objective here…

    • geekwithsoul@lemm.eeEnglish
      13·
      29 days ago

      There’s also advantages to the DC metro area being a “company town” in that it attracts interested public servants with particular skill sets. The DC metro area has a huge number of folks not from here, so it’s not like there’s a “DC mindset” at the individual level. And the feds have been pretty good on telework (fed contractors, not so much)

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        29 days ago

        I wouldn’t say that it’s the same as having people from all over the place that keep on living in their community. Live a couple of years in the city and your mindset won’t be the same even if you’re from a rural area. Add to that the door it opens to give good jobs in regions that need them and centralization makes even less sense.

    • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
      4·
      29 days ago

      Also could be good to help struggling cities and provide jobs. Probably can’t have some national security department in Detroit in case those damn Canadians try to invade, but maybe the USDA or something could bring a lot of well paying jobs there or any rust belt city.

      Could also save the government some money because cost of living is low enough that hiring a white collar worker in Detroit is way cheaper then in the DC metro.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        29 days ago

        At the same time it’s even better if they’re all paid the same wage as it puts pressure on the private sector to get up to speed.

      • HobbitFoot English
        2·
        29 days ago

        The CDC has been held up as the example of what could be done. The organization that became the CDC started in Atlanta, but it shows you don’t need to be near Washington, DC to be important.

        The idea is to move more research based organizations to lower cost cities since they don’t have to be in DC to be effective, the federal government could save on living expenses, and the agency could act as stimulus to the area.

  • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
    71·
    29 days ago

    The article says Washington 10 times, but it’s referring to Washington, D.C. if anyone else was confused.

  • John Richard@lemmy.world
    54·
    29 days ago

    Well considering they don’t work for the President, they should just say no. They could also unionize if the party that claims to be pro-union was actually pro-union.

      • John Richard@lemmy.world
        12·
        27 days ago

        I encourage you to read about the differences between federal employee unions and private sector ones. Public sector does almost nothing. Many people are even excluded from being able to unionize. About all they can do is petition Congress for changes. Good luck with that.