House and Senate lawmakers Monday called for changes to federal hiring practices that appear to be fostering political favoritism in the Obama administration, by making it too easy for political appointees to become career federal workers.
A new report issued by the Government Accountability Office found that out of 69 cases in the Obama administration where federal appointees were able to convert political jobs to career federal service positions, a quarter of those hires “did not follow proper procedures intended to prevent improper political favoritism.”
The process of political appointees converting their appointments into career positions is known as burrowing.
“The nonpartisan watchdog’s findings that one out of every four political appointees who burrowed into the executive branch during this administration did not follow the rules is deeply troubling,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement.
“One of the reasons the federal government has laws on merit-based hiring is to prevent cronyism and political favoritism,” said Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. “GAO’s finding that the Obama administration hasn’t consistently followed these rules is troubling.”
The GAO found that among the 30 agencies reviewed, 28 reported “converting 69 individuals from political to career positions from January 1, 2010, to October 1, 2015,” and among those, 17 were hired without required review by the Office of Personnel Management.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, called for the administration to impose “a more stringent process,” for hiring employees who began as political appointees.
The largest number of appointee-to-career federal employee conversions took place at the Department of Homeland Security.
