The history of civil service and the impact of Trump's slashing of the workforce — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03amna: This week marked president
2. 0:07trump's deadline for federal
3. 0:09agencies to launch mass firings.
4. 0:11Tens of thousands of staff have
5. 0:12been forced out.
6. 0:14Courts have reversed some of
7. 0:15trump's moves and upheld others.
8. 0:16This has been a source of pride
9. 0:18for the president and a
10. 0:19nightmare for many workers but
11. 0:21as Lisa Desjardins reports, it
12. 0:24is about a much older debate
13. 0:27about the federal civil service.
14. 0:29Lisa: The U.S. Government is the
15. 0:30largest employer in the country
16. 0:31with three million civilian
17. 0:31workers.
18. 0:34They do everything from
19. 0:35delivering our mail, to keeping
20. 0:35our food supply safe, to
21. 0:36producing legions of studies.
22. 0:38To some, that's an American
23. 0:39strength.
24. 0:41To others, including president
25. 0:42trump, a bloated system to
26. 0:43dismantle.
27. 0:50Pres. Trump: We are draining the
28. 0:51swamp.
29. 0:51It's very simple.
30. 0:51And the days of rule by
31. 0:52unelected bureaucrats are over.
32. 0:54Lisa: President trump's actions
33. 0:56are unique in some ways --
34. 0:57firing tens of thousands of
35. 0:59federal workers in the first six
36. 0:59weeks.
37. 1:01But this debate over the role
38. 1:03and size of federal government
39. 1:04is nearly as old as this
40. 1:07country, and it is core to how
41. 1:08U.S. Democracy operates.
42. 1:12>> There's been an ongoing
43. 1:13contest about what the proper
44. 1:15size of the federal government
45. 1:17is, what the federal workforce
46. 1:19should look like, how big it
47. 1:20should be, and in particular,
48. 1:22what it should be doing.
49. 1:25Lisa: Going back to president
50. 1:27Andrew Jackson and 1829, who
51. 1:29quickly cut 20% of the federal
52. 1:29workforce and hired party
53. 1:30loyalists.
54. 1:40>> Being hired as a federal
55. 1:40worker had everything to do with
56. 1:41your political orientation and
57. 1:42your loyalty to the party, and
58. 1:42not much to do with your
59. 1:43qualifications or your expertise
60. 1:44or your ability to do the job.
61. 1:44Lisa: The so-called spoils
62. 1:48system got its name during
63. 1:48Jackson's administration.
64. 1:51Political parties controlled
65. 1:51government jobs and workers had
66. 1:52to pay the party to keep those
67. 1:53jobs.
68. 1:53Many believed the system was
69. 1:54bent toward corruption.
70. 2:02>> Many people felt like there
71. 2:03was no way that American
72. 2:03democracy could flourish, and
73. 2:04there was no way that this
74. 2:04fast-growing country could
75. 2:05flourish without a professional
76. 2:06civil service.
77. 2:11We really need people in the
78. 2:13federal government who are not
79. 2:13just political hacks.
80. 2:14Lisa: And then, dramatic events
81. 2:17in the 1880's.
82. 2:18A reformer, James Garfield, won
83. 2:19the presidency, but he was soon
84. 2:21shot by an assassin who opposed
85. 2:23reform and supported vice
86. 2:25president Chester Arthur who was
87. 2:28part of the spoils system.
88. 2:29But as president, Arthur broke
89. 2:30with the political machine.
90. 2:34>> He surprised everybody,
91. 2:35Arthur did, by proclaiming that
92. 2:36he had had this change of heart.
93. 2:38He was now in favor of reform.
94. 2:40Lisa: In 1883, Arthur signed a
95. 2:42key law, the Pendleton act,
96. 2:44setting up exams for federal
97. 2:46workers and limiting much of the
98. 2:47role of political parties in
99. 2:48hirings and firings.
100. 2:51A meritocracy was born.
101. 2:53>> In the working out of a great
102. 2:55national program.
103. 2:56Lisa: 50 years later, another
104. 2:57significant change.
105. 2:58This time to the size of the
106. 2:59federal workforce.
107. 3:03>> When Roosevelt takes office,
108. 3:04the national government is
109. 3:05probably about 500,000
110. 3:05employees.
111. 3:06By the time he leaves office,
112. 3:07it's well over three million.
113. 3:09Lisa: In 1933, Franklin
114. 3:11Roosevelt introduced his new
115. 3:12deal to provide jobs and help
116. 3:14for the millions of Americans
117. 3:14who were unemployed.
118. 3:17>> In response to the great
119. 3:18depression, he dramatically
120. 3:20expands the role of the national
121. 3:21government.
122. 3:24These government employees are
123. 3:25doing lots of new things.
124. 3:25So, the federal government's
125. 3:26taking new responsibilities in
126. 3:28regulating markets and providing
127. 3:29social welfare.
128. 3:30So, we get social security and
129. 3:31these kinds of things.
130. 3:38It created a conservative
131. 3:41backlash.
132. 3:41Lisa: Fdr fundamentally changed
133. 3:43what government could do and how
134. 3:43it could do it.
135. 3:47In the 1970's, the fallout from
136. 3:49Nixon watergate scandal sparked
137. 3:52another shift when in 1978,
138. 3:54Jimmy Carter led an attempt to
139. 3:55bring more accountability.
140. 4:02Pres. Carter: This
141. 4:03reorganization plan will restore
142. 4:03the merit principle to a system
143. 4:04which has grown into a
144. 4:05bureaucratic maze.
145. 4:07Lisa: Carter's civil service
146. 4:08reform act created the office of
147. 4:09personnel management and
148. 4:10recognized the right of most
149. 4:11federal workers to unionize.
150. 4:14Then in 1981, Ronald Reagan
151. 4:17brought a seismic political
152. 4:17shift.
153. 4:22>> Government is not the
154. 4:22solution to our problem,
155. 4:25government is the problem.
156. 4:29>> The federal workforce in
157. 4:32particular, he really
158. 4:33articulated as being
159. 4:34unaccountable, as being
160. 4:35inefficient as being a sort of
161. 4:35metastasizing force on the
162. 4:38American political body.
163. 4:40Lisa: Reagan fired 11,000 air
164. 4:42traffic controllers who went on
165. 4:44strike demanding better hours
166. 4:46and wages.
167. 4:46But ultimately, by the end of
168. 4:47his term, he would add to the
169. 4:49federal workforce in net.
170. 4:54It really wasn't until bill
171. 4:56Clinton took office in 1993 that
172. 4:59we saw a modern-day, large-scale
173. 5:00downsizing of the federal
174. 5:01workforce.
175. 5:08>> Those forklifts hold copies
176. 5:10of budget rules and personnel
177. 5:12code and the regulations stacked
178. 5:13up there no longer help
179. 5:15government work.
180. 5:18They hurt it, they hurt it
181. 5:18badly.
182. 5:19Lisa: He put vice president Al
183. 5:19gore in charge of a national
184. 5:21partnership for reinventing
185. 5:22government, an attempt to make
186. 5:23government more efficient.
187. 5:29The effort took place over seven
188. 5:30years, ultimately slimming a
189. 5:31federal workforce of about two
190. 5:32million down by more than
191. 5:33400,000 people.
192. 5:35>> That's the beginning of not
193. 5:38only removing federal agencies
194. 5:39and federal employees out of
195. 5:40Washington, D.C.
196. 5:42There's a significant exodus of
197. 5:43agencies out of the district,
198. 5:45but also services to private
199. 5:45contracts.
200. 5:51Lisa: Over the past two decades,
201. 5:53the share of Americans employed
202. 5:54by the federal government has
203. 5:54remained nearly flat.
204. 5:58>> I got elected on making
205. 6:01government better, more
206. 6:02efficient and smaller.
207. 6:04Lisa: And although some
208. 6:07historians hear some echoes of
209. 6:07Clinton and gore today.
210. 6:10>> The difference is they always
211. 6:11talked about government workers
212. 6:13being good people trapped in a
213. 6:15bad system so their emphasis was
214. 6:16always on process, not on
215. 6:17people.
216. 6:17The magnitude of this
217. 6:19administratively is
218. 6:20unparalleled.
219. 6:21So normally, we would do this
220. 6:23through the budget process with
221. 6:24congressional cooperation.
222. 6:28Lisa: Trump and Elon Musk say
223. 6:30they are focused on fraud, waste
224. 6:30and abuse, and want the U.S.
225. 6:31Government to shrink.
226. 6:34But their haphazard methods have
227. 6:35created confusion and, for some
228. 6:36agencies, dysfunction.
229. 6:39Americans are divided in this
230. 6:41area with a majority saying
231. 6:42government is doing too much and
232. 6:45a majority also feeling that
233. 6:49federal workers are essential.
234. 6:50There is no way yet to gauge the
235. 6:51lasting effects of these
236. 6:52changes, but they could be wide.
237. 6:55>> People not getting their
238. 6:58social security checks, patents
239. 6:59taking longer to approve.
240. 7:00Mistakes are going to increase.
241. 7:01I think the customer service of
242. 7:02government is going to decrease
243. 7:03as well.
244. 7:05>> We're heading into, I think,
245. 7:06a pretty interesting and a
246. 7:09pretty daunting experiment in
247. 7:11what it's going to be like when
248. 7:15some of those things that we've
249. 7:16taken for granted are really
250. 7:16gone.
251. 7:18Lisa: The trump white house
252. 7:23argues the trade-off, a more
253. 7:24efficient government, is worth
254. 7:24it.
255. 7:25Others say it destroys what took
256. 7:25200 years to build.
257. 7:28We know this -- in those 200
258. 7:29years of debate over federal
259. 7:33workers, no one has seen this
260. 7:33until now.
261. 7:35For the "Pbs news hour," I'm
262. 7:35Lisa Desjardins.
263. 7:39♪♪