By Nathan Layne and Tim Reid
(Reuters) -The Social Security Administration could lose thousands more staff beyond the 7,000 already targeted for cuts due to a move by the Trump administration to reclassify government employees, making them easier to fire, worker advocates said on Friday.
President Donald Trump said last week his administration would proceed with plans to designate tens of thousands of federal workers as “at will” employees involved in policy decisions, stripping them of civil service protections.
Trump’s announcement triggered fresh scrutiny of an email sent this month by Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to staff detailing plans to convert a wide range of agency positions to the new “schedule policy/career” classification.
In the April 7 email seen by Reuters and first reported by Government Executive, Dudek instructed staff to reclassify key departments, including the offices of the Chief Information Officer and Disability Determinations.
Union officials say that most employees in these departments are not involved in policy and warn that the move will set the stage for the SSA to fire thousands of additional workers.
“This plan is a draconian overreach that has nothing to do with the Administration’s supposed goal of ensuring policymakers toe the line,” said Rich Couture, an official with the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing SSA employees.
“Rather, this plan is about giving SSA the ability to summarily fire employees who have nothing to do with policy-making.”
The SSA did not respond to a request for comment.
The SSA has already eliminated about 3,000 jobs through buyout and early retirement programs, Couture said, putting it nearly halfway to its 7,000 target.
In a proposal published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management estimated that 50,000 employees will be reclassified as policy-related, or roughly 2% of the civilian federal workforce. OPM said the change would allow agencies to more easily get rid of “poor performers.”
Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, estimated that reclassification could affect 10,000 SSA employees, close to 20% of the agency’s workforce.
Romig, a former SSA employee, warned that the moves could politicize critical positions within the agency. She noted that the offices of Acquisition and Grants and Human Resources were listed by Dudek for reclassification.
“You don’t want grants politicized or contracts that could lead to self-dealing. You don’t want human resources politicized, that could lead to hiring of political cronies,” she said. “There’s a tremendous potential for abuse.”
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York and Tim Reid in Washington; editing by Ross Colvin and Bill Berkrot)
