Anonymous wrote:I’m at GAO and posted a few pages back. We are relatively safe (and worried about our federal colleagues) for now. But I know I’m not alone in worrying about whether the administration will follow the established process (and what can be done if they don’t) to appoint our next comptroller general. The current CG’s 15-year term expires in December.

Wow. Not only the process, but I am terrified to see who the appointee might be. 15 years is a long time and I would worry GAO would turn into a personal task force for the administration

Anonymous wrote:Privacy Act Officer which is my role and perhaps those positions that are mandated; laws, Acts.

That is ripe for schedule F intervention.

Anonymous wrote:Elon will do whatever he wants—that’s the strategy. Move quickly and break lots of rules. He knows the courts can’t keep up. What’s already done becomes extremely difficult to undo and could take years to resolve in the legal system. Meanwhile he’s accomplished his objective of quickly reducing the number of federal employees.

His goal and Dumpy's too is to create chaos.

He's lost a lot of money on X.

He's underwater, and he's using all this turmoil to hide the fact that he's got his hands in the til and is siphoning off tax dollars via government contracts he awards himself.

Mark my words!! Some day we'll find out the extent of the grift and corruption of this administration. A lot of it is hidden.

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Anonymous wrote:I feel reasonably safe as a criminal AUSA. We perform a core constitutional function and there’s really no fat to cut. Every attorney in my office works 60 hours a week, save for a handful of people in highly niche roles.

I wish you well, but what you describe (core function, no fat) isn't unique. It just comes down to whether Trump or Musk see you as an enemy. I would have thought everybody in DOJ saw that up close.

There are only 6000 AUSAs and the overwhelming majority prosecute a mix of violent street crime, drug distribution, gun, child exploitation, and immigration offenses. I don’t see Trump or Musk coming at us.

Obviously those who have worked on high-profile cases unpopular with this administration (J6, FACE Act cases) are differently situated.

I worked for a highly visible USAO for a decade. USAOs like to bring in their people and law firms that work with USAOs like to cycle their people through USAOs for experience. I don’t think you all are necessarily safe.

What’s the status of all the feds who’ve been purged for their supposed DEI connections? Does anyone know? Has this even been challenged?

Criminals will be safe. No more prosecutions!!

They're going after my organization too and we're not funded by taxpayers at all, we're fee funded.

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Anonymous wrote:Elon will do whatever he wants—that’s the strategy. Move quickly and break lots of rules. He knows the courts can’t keep up. What’s already done becomes extremely difficult to undo and could take years to resolve in the legal system. Meanwhile he’s accomplished his objective of quickly reducing the number of federal employees.

He really hasn’t. Other than firing the J6 and Trump
Prosecutors, which wasn’t Leon but DOJ, all are still employed and getting paid.

I’m not saying he’s already accomplished everything he wants (although he’s off to a good start). I’m saying he will have accomplished many of his goals if he continues with his current strategy. Yes, the courts have stopped some things, but they aren’t moving fast enough. The quicker he acts the better (for him). Look, for example, at his access to private OPM records and the Treasury system. All of that happened before the courts could stop it. Now the horse is out of the barn and who knows what damage has already been done. There have been credible rumors of back doors installed in government systems that would allow Elon to hack back in at any time he wants.

With federal jobs, it’s the firings not getting a ton of press that worry me most. Most people don’t have the resources to quickly file suit on their own and not everyone has union representation.

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Anonymous wrote:Elon, a couple of days ago, told an event of JP Morgan's 200 largest clients that he intends on cutting 3/4 of the federal workforce.

Plan accordingly.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-speaks-jpmorgan-event-attended-by-ceo-dimon-source-says-2025-02-07/

WTF?! I say this as someone who thinks we could pare down the gov. a little bit, I admit there is a lot of fraud waste and abuse but 75% is insane and will collapse the county. This would be catastrophic.

I wish I could get citizenship in another county right now.

Take a deep breath. Despite his talk, he is going to have to follow the process. He can't just fire people without having cause. RIF takes time and requires following the regs.

That's why he's working to hard to make working conditions as miserable as possible -- he wants people to leave of their own accord.

They’ve been operating with impunity so far and not following any “process”. Why do you think that’s going to change?

They just had their Fork offer put on hold, and it is likely to be ruled illegal on Monday.

They will push as far as they can. But we do still have some institutions.

If Fork is banned they are going to take revenge using RIFs. We are bot going to get out of this unscathed

RIFs have a lot of regulations that go along with them. They will take time. Slowing the process down is good.

But can't they take out an entire career area of an agency using a RIF, as was done with DEI folk, instead of using agency wide RIFs? I would imagine the former would take less time and be more damaging.

The process still takes time. And it brings rights for employees that are wholly absent from Fork You.

Here is a summary - just look at all the steps the agency must take: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/reductions-in-force/#url=Summary

Yes, they will try to bypass this, but the courts are already stopping illegal actions. They cannot simply do whatever they want.

I don't think any position is safe. We're not dealing with people sincerely interested in improving government ops or efficiency. They want to burn it down.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem is that the vast majority of Fed employees just do not have the expertise that can do the same job in the private sector. I am willing to bet that many will have difficulties getting jobs in the private sector for the same pay.

I work in IT infrastructure at the DOT, and almost all the technical work is being done by contractors. Almost all the Fed employees from GS-12 to GS-15 are there for oversight. They don't have much technical expertise to get the day-to-day operations done.

There aren't enough jobs. Lots of private companies are doing RTO and quiet or forced layoffs.

then, these contractors have to do more with less. It's a lot of belt tightening and everyone gotta do it.

It's not belt tightening moron it's hacking off limbs and self flagellation. What do you think this is, fiscal conservatism or something?

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Anonymous wrote:The problem is that the vast majority of Fed employees just do not have the expertise that can do the same job in the private sector. I am willing to bet that many will have difficulties getting jobs in the private sector for the same pay.

I work in IT infrastructure at the DOT, and almost all the technical work is being done by contractors. Almost all the Fed employees from GS-12 to GS-15 are there for oversight. They don't have much technical expertise to get the day-to-day operations done.

There aren't enough jobs. Lots of private companies are doing RTO and quiet or forced layoffs.

then, these contractors have to do more with less. It's a lot of belt tightening and everyone gotta do it.

Maybe we should not be cutting taxes if it’s so dire. Thoughts?

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Anonymous wrote:The problem is that the vast majority of Fed employees just do not have the expertise that can do the same job in the private sector. I am willing to bet that many will have difficulties getting jobs in the private sector for the same pay.

I work in IT infrastructure at the DOT, and almost all the technical work is being done by contractors. Almost all the Fed employees from GS-12 to GS-15 are there for oversight. They don't have much technical expertise to get the day-to-day operations done.

There aren't enough jobs. Lots of private companies are doing RTO and quiet or forced layoffs.

then, these contractors have to do more with less. It's a lot of belt tightening and everyone gotta do it.

VA positions exempted from Fork (and many of these also exempted from hiring freeze, too): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L2FXPVy4oRnQLCiPCdSUKQ2O8DSDP5fZi1QY8S5Vof4/htmlview#gid=0

I’m not saying President Melon Husk isn’t coming for VA, but it won’t be among the first round.

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I wouldn't be sure at all. Trump has disparaged wounded vets, calling them "losers", and disgraced Arlington Cemetery. He has a hatred towards people with disabilities, and is happy to cancel funding that they require to live their lives in the community, and my guess is he won't treat disabled veterans better.

This is what worries (and sickens) me. I'm a DoD clinician who works almost exclusively with wounded warriors. You know, the guys who had their legs blown off or crushed in combat or combat training. I would have thought I was safe but then I remembered the contempt Dump has for these men and women. https://www.militaryonesource.mil/benefits/wounded-warrior-programs/

As an aside, it's incorrect that a large percentage of VA staff are Fork-exempt.

As an aside, no where did I say a “large percentage of VA staff are Fork-exempt.”To clarify, a lot of *positions* are. Reading comprehension is fundamental. Stop spreading BS.

Given this, I wouldn’t expect an immediate RIF/VERA for these positions if they aren’t even allowed allowed to take Fork.