‘Right Over the Target’: Former Trump Adviser Says Federal Bureaucrats Must Be Held Accountable

Former Trump adviser James Sherk says the pushback in Washington against an executive order that would allow the president to fire federal employees is confirmation that the policy is necessary.

Sherk is the director of the Center for American Freedom at the America First Policy Institute. In an interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, he said he helped craft the Schedule F executive order after witnessing career bureaucrats blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Schedule F would enable a president to fire powerful bureaucrats who engage in insubordination or intransigence. As it stands now, civil service protections make it nearly impossible to successfully fire a federal employee, Sherk said.

“No one votes for these career bureaucrats,” he said. “They have no accountability to the American people, and if the government is wielding its vast power in a manner divorced from what the elected representatives in Congress and the president in the White House is saying, then you have an unaccountable government.”

In August, after Axios ran a story about Trump’s Schedule F executive order, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to prevent that executive order from ever being implemented again by another president. But Sherk said the fact that the Washington establishment is up in arms about proposal means it’s a spot-on policy.

“Official Washington lit their hair on fire, which I think was a pretty good sign we’re right over the target,” he said.

No Accountability

The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the federal bureaucracy be answerable to the president and the American people. But right now, federal employees have extensive removal protections. Firing career staffers often requires lengthy and costly legal proceedings, with most of the dismissals ultimately being overturned anyway, Sherk said.

The Schedule F executive order would require career staff members to curb their partisanship.

“Given the importance of the functions they discharge, employees in such positions must

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