Hamilton Would Smile at Trump’s Push for Accountability

‘Energy in the Executive’ entails the authority to impose consequences for poor performance

By Allysia Finley. Excerpts:

"It’s increasingly rare that anyone working in federal government is held accountable. “If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” Mr. Biden promised on taking office. Yet Mr. Biden was loath to fire his appointees no matter their blunders. He even let Martin Gruenberg remain as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. despite an independent audit last year that documented his personal outbursts and profanity against colleagues.

The audit also reported that nearly 1 in 10 FDIC employees complained of sexual harassment, discrimination or other personal misconduct in the workplace. One woman said she had received a picture of a senior examiner’s private parts. Another claimed to have received text messages from a senior colleague with “partially naked women engaging in sexual acts.”

None of 92 harassment complaints that the agency received from 2015 to 2023 resulted in an employee’s removal or reduction in grade or pay. Only two led to suspensions. Many of the accused, the report said, were “promoted to other executive positions or moved around to different regions or divisions, instead of being subject to any discipline.”"

"Even Biden regulators chafed at restrictions on their power to manage their workforces." 

"Chairman Gary Gensler repeatedly clashed with the union representing workers at the Securities and Exchange Commission."

"A federal labor panel ruled in 2022 that he couldn’t require staff—most of whom earn more than $200,000—to work in the office more than two days during every two-week period."

"And there’s nothing radical about the Trump administration’s offering buyouts to federal workers and placing employees such as those at the U.S. Agency for International Development on paid administrative leave to get around civil-service and union job protections. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did the same during the Biden years."

"Lina Khan drove 71 senior attorneys to leave the Federal Trade Commission between 2021 and 2022, the most in more than two decades."