A subpanel within the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has started a series of hearings to gather ideas on how to facilitate reforms to the civil service system and assess the federal hiring process, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.Nicole Ogrysko writes Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), chairman of the Senate committee’s regulatory affairs and federal management subpanel, said during a Thursday hearing that the General Schedule system needs to be addressed and that he aims to seek feedback from federal managers on current processes and authorities that pose a challenge to their jobs.
The subpanel’s hearing comes weeks after President Donald Trump issued a memo that would bar federal agencies from hiring new employees until the Office of Management and Budget drafts within 90 days a plan on how to implement attrition to shrink the size of the federal workforce.
“Congress can either watch as the administration deals with the federal workforce through executive actions, or it can find consensus and work with the administration, take up the mantel of substantive legislative reform,†Lankford said.
He also noted that modernizing the civil service system should start with updates to the federal hiring process, according to the report.
