New bill would levy penalties on feds ‘impeding’ presidential directives and require new training

With a week until the election, a House bill is outlining new penalties for federal employees — including a potential five-year debarment — if they impede or obstruct lawful orders from the next presidential administration.

Rep. August Pfluger’s, R-Texas, Stop Resistance Activities by Federal Employees Act would direct the Office of Personnel Management to craft new mandatory training for federal employees at General Schedule 15, Senior Executive Service or other levels to instruct them on the penalties imposed if they were to oppose, obstruct or impede directives from the president, vice president or any other political appointee. 

Those lawful orders can include anything from executive orders, national security presidential memoranda, presidential decision directives or agency directives, and the penalties would be in line with those imposed for Hatch Act violations — up to and including removal, reduction in pay grade, debarring federal employment for not more than five years, suspension, reprimand, a $1,000 civil penalty or a combination of punishments. 

In a statement detailing the bill, Pfluger’s office described the STRAFE Act as “a framework to mitigate resistance within federal agencies, ensuring a more cooperative and compliant federal workforce.”

"Career unelected bureaucrats cannot be allowed to undermine the agenda of any future President," Pflugersaid in a statement. "We must ensure that the network of federal employees that brazenly carried out resistance activities under the first Trump Administration is not unleashed again." 

The bill would give OPM 180 days following its enactment to design and implement the training curriculum, which would explain the violations and how to identify and report them. Federal employees would have to complete the training no less than 30 days after OPM implements it and repeat that training annually. 

But the STRAFE Act also directs agency heads to establish a reporting mechanism for employees to disclose the violations to political appointees in the SES within 180 days and deliver a report to the Executive Office of the President every six months outlining the number of violations and investigations reported in that time frame.

According to Pfluger’s office, that reporting process would be independent and would bypass “the traditional Inspector General channels within agencies, to ensure a more transparent system.”

The bill is the latest salvo in the dispute over the structure of the federal workforce and the civil protections afforded to federal employees. Former President Donald Trump has previously said he would “dismantle the deep state” and reinstitute his 2020 Schedule F policy to convert federal employees in policy-related positions to roles exempt from civil service protections, effectively making them easier to remove.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in an email to Government Executive that the STRAFE Act was an unnecessary application to an absent issue.

“This bill is purporting to solve a problem that does not exist,” he said. “Federal employees are sworn to uphold the law and the Constitution and will continue to do their jobs regardless of who sits in the White House.”

National Treasury Employees Union National President Doreen Greenwald likewise blasted the bill in an email, saying that the law already establishes the role federal employees must play in serving the president. 

"The frontline federal employees we represent take an oath to uphold the Constitution, the same oath taken by members of Congress. Unlike members of Congress, however, federal employees are nonpartisan and are prohibited from playing politics on the job," she said. "They are hired based on skill and merit, and they do their job regardless of which political party controls the White House. The law already requires them to perform the duties necessary to further their agencies' mission in service to the American people, which includes following the lawful orders of their supervisors." 

Senior Executives Association President Marcus Hill also said in an email that the SES group opposes the STRAFE Act.

"This bill is unnecessary – Federal employees are already responsible for following lawful orders from political appointees, and effective penalties for noncompliance are already in place," he said. "SEA also opposes inclusion of language to bypass independent inspectors general and direct compliance reports to political staff in the White House – managing specific actions involving Federal workers properly rests with the leadership of agencies, not White House staff.  SEA would support legislation that improves training for political (and career) leaders on how best to achieve their objectives consistent with law, but this bill does not address that important objective.”