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Democrats on edge after Sessions attacks Andrew McCabe's pension

Pete Kasperowicz

Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, which will likely reduce his pension benefits, has Democratic lawmakers and a key government employee union warning that Republicans are coming after federal workers.

Sessions fired McCabe just before the FBI veteran's 50th birthday, stripping him of an early retirement option that by some estimates could have given him $60,000 per year in benefits immediately. Those will now be delayed until he's at least 57 years old, at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars to McCabe.

For Democrats, the message was clear: The Trump administration is going to war against federal workers, and Republicans are cheering him on.

"The timing of President Trump's decision to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe raises serious concerns, and his repeated criticism of the hardworking men and women of the FBI weakens our nation's justice system," House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told the Washington Examiner.

Hoyer said the rationale for firing McCabe needs to be explained immediately to Congress, "including why he was fired the day before his government pension was set to begin."

On the House floor Monday, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said McCabe's ouster is an explicit message to all the other federal workers who might still be examining Trump's alleged ties to Russia.

"It was a shot across the bow at other government officials who are doing their jobs," Cohen said.

"And if they don't agree with the Mueller investigation continuing, or if they see concerns about the U.S. president and his campaign and some involvement with Russia, or obstruction of justice or violations of emoluments clauses, that they too risk their jobs, and risk their pensions and risk their financial security," he said.

The National Federation of Federal Employees similarly warned that the rare move from Sessions was a "purely punitive action" against McCabe, and a form of corruption on the part of Republicans that needs to be stopped.

"Regardless of Mr. McCabe's guilt or innocence, the system was manipulated at some level to intentionally inject pain on a career employee," NFFE Executive Director Steve Lenkart told the Washington Examiner.

"This is why legitimate due process is so important to the career civil service," he said. "Due process is not a personal right of employees but rather a systematic protection against corruption and political exploitation."

Lenkart argued further that Republicans have been pushing for years to eliminate civil service protections, and want to "threaten apolitical career employees."

It's a trend others have noticed building for a while now. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who represents a district in northern Virginia that's home to thousands of federal workers, said that while Trump seems to have encouraged Sessions' move, Republicans have been looking to chip away at the rights of federal workers for years.

In the first few days of 2017, House Republicans revived the so-called Holman Rule, which allows lawmakers to single out specific federal workers in a spending bill and cut their salaries down to $1.

"That sent a shiver down a lot of spines," Connolly said.

Late last year, House Republicans voted to extend the normal probationary period for new federal workers from one year to two years. The change would let agencies more easily fire workers earlier in their careers.

Connolly said these events show that Sessions' firing of McCabe is just one link in the chain for Republicans.

"You have to look at this not as an isolated, mean-spirited act by the president and Jeff Sessions, but something in the context of something more alarming," Connolly said.

He said McCabe's firing shows that Republicans know what outcomes they want, and are willing to put real pressure on federal workers to deliver them those outcomes. Republicans are essentially telling federal workers, "We're willing to use pension and payment as a way of getting what we want out of you."

When it comes to which federal workers are most at risk, one Democratic aide said it seems most likely that political appointees are in more danger than career officials.

"Since the 19th century, due to a succession of reforms designed to insulate and protect the federal civil service from exactly the kind of petty and vindictive actions that occurred last week, most federal workers are not likely to experience what McCabe experienced with his pension," this aide wrote to the Washington Examiner. "That being said, Congress must work to ensure that political appointees, and even the president himself, do not punish federal employees for doing their jobs or roll back civil service protections."

But when it comes down to what Democrats can do about it, the consensus seems to be: ride it out.

Over the weekend, Michael Bromwich, former inspector general for the Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton, said there's not much that can be done but to "shudder in the knowledge that they could be next."

Connolly said the problem is clearly political in nature, and that the GOP agrees with the Trump administration's apparent effort to make life tougher for federal workers.

"The Republicans have decided they are going to play the role of enablers because they've struck a deal, in a sense, with the devil, because they can get some of their legislation through," he said. "That's dangerous to the future of the Republic, and that's not hyperbole."

Connolly also noted that this political problem for Democrats and their constituents probably has a political solution.

"The answer to all of that is, we've got to win the mid-terms," he said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/democrats-on-edge-after-sessions-attacks-andrew-mccabes-pension
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