Jeff Ruch, who serves as senior counsel to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, warned that efforts to shed protections for career employees, or make them easier to fire, could result in a significant waste of federal resources, as well as talent.
“If they get rid of a lot of senior people, they are forfeiting a huge investment in the training and development of those positions,” Ruch said, noting that recent efforts to trim staff through buyouts and early retirement incentives have created an “institutional knowledge gap.”