Latest news with #WhiteHouseOfficeofPersonnelManagement
Boston Globe
13-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
State Department wants staff to report instances of alleged anti-Christian bias during Biden's term
But these officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the update to the White House Office of Personnel Management would not be the final word on the reorganization of the State Department. And, they denied speculation amongst the rank and file that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had refused to sign off on the document. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up While foreign and civil service employees await word on their futures, the State Department has moved ahead with an initiative aimed at rooting out religious bias in its policies and hiring practices with a specific emphasis on anti-Christian activity that may have occurred under President Joe Biden. In a cable sent Friday to all U.S. diplomatic missions, Rubio asked that staffers report any perceived discriminatory actions taken against Christians or employees advocating on their behalf between January 2021 and January 2025. The cable, copies of which were obtained by The Associated Press, says that all reported allegations will be investigated by a government-wide task force on anti-Christian bias and if discrimination is found the culprits may be disciplined. It also makes clear that allegations can be submitted anonymously. Advertisement 'The task force will collect information and ideas from individuals and groups, including Department employees, affected by anti-Christian bias or other religious discriminatory conduct,' the cable says. 'The task force is soliciting examples of anti-religious bias, particularly from the past four years, where the Department targeted anyone for their religion, including discrimination, harassment, exclusion, disciplinary action, adverse security clearance determinations, or any other adverse action, or in retaliation for exercising their religious rights,' the cable said. 'This includes anti-religious bias committed by department employees in their official duties against members of the public.' Examples of potential violations include formal or informal actions taken against a person because they requested religious accommodation 'from taking mandatory vaccines or observing religious holidays ' and 'mistreatment for refusing to participate in events and activities that promoted themes inconsistent with or hostile to one's religious beliefs, including policies or practices related to preferred personal pronouns,' according to the cable. Others include 'mistreatment for opposing displays of flags, banners or other paraphernalia on or in government facilities because of religious objection or for opposing official media content due to religious objections, forcing employees to remove personal displays of religious faith or conscience, whether as part of clothing/accessories items on desks or in personal workspace,' the cable said. In non-governmental chat groups and elsewhere, some State Department employees expressed alarm over the cable, particularly as it was issued shortly after the promotion of a junior foreign service officer to temporarily run the department's human resources office, the Bureau of Global Talent Management. Advertisement Lew Olowski assumed that job last week and in his first comments to employees gave a welcome address to a new class of incoming diplomats that cited both Biblical verses and religiously themed quotes from President Abraham Lincoln. After swearing in the new class with the oath to Constitution, Olowski told them: 'Oaths and words are different. Words are for talking. Dolphins can talk. Oaths are covenants. Animals do not covenant. Only God and man can make covenants.' 'To an officer of the United States like you and me, the Constitution is our commandment. Its words are like the word of God and the words of the oath are our creation as officers,' he said, according to a transcript of his remarks. 'And these words are our beginning. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,' he said, before praising foreign service officers who have died while in service to the country. In a perhaps unusual coincidence, reports of anti-Christian or other religious bias are to be reported to Olowski's wife, Heather, who is the head of the State Department's office of civil rights. Last week, the American Foreign Service Association, which represents U.S. diplomats, the American Academy of Diplomacy said Olowski's appointment was an affront to the long-held standard that the post be occupied by either a current senior or retired career diplomat. His numerous pro-Trump and anti-immigrant writings in conservative publications over the past several years had been been widely shared among internal group chats. Advertisement ___ Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's message to federal workers becomes his latest fiasco
On Saturday morning, for reasons unknown, Donald Trump published an all-caps missive to his social media platform about Elon Musk. The president's top campaign donor, the Republican wrote, is 'doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive.' He did not elaborate as to what 'more aggressive' tactics might entail, but just hours after Trump's message reached the public, Musk did, in fact, take his efforts in a new direction. NBC News reported: Billionaire Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to federal employees Saturday, saying in a post on his social media platform X that employees must respond to an email justifying the work they completed this week or resign. ... 'Consistent with President [Trump's] instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,' Musk wrote. On Saturday afternoon, federal employees soon after received an email from the White House Office of Personnel Management, asking workers to summarize their accomplishments from last week — complete with five bullet points. The directive was ridiculous enough at face value — it was far from clear who would read and assess these emails — but making matters worse was the number of federal agencies that directed their employees to ignore the email. The New York Times reported: Several Trump-appointed agency leaders urged federal workers not to comply with Elon Musk's order to summarize their accomplishments for the past week or be removed from their positions, even as Mr. Musk doubled down on his demand over the weekend. Their instructions in effect countermanded the order of Mr. Musk across much of the government, challenging the broad authority President Trump has given the world's richest man to make drastic changes to the federal bureaucracy. The FBI, for example, told its employees not to respond to the email, as did the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security. The Times' report added that the Musk-driven email even reached federal judges — which was odd in large part because jurists don't work for the executive branch — prompting the administrative office for the federal courts to advise judges and staff not to reply. For an administration and a DOGE endeavor that has been hampered by one shambolic fiasco after another, the developments were no doubt discouraging. But hanging overhead was a related question: What about the White House's court filing last week on Musk and his quasi-governmental 'department'? In fact, it was just seven days ago when a White House lawyer argued, in writing, that Musk is little more than a 'senior adviser to the president' — a role in which the GOP megadonor has 'no actual or formal authority.' What's more, according to that same court filing, Musk isn't leading the Department of Government Efficiency at all. The claims were at odds with effectively everything the president and his team have said about the DOGE initiative, but apparently indifferent to the contradictions, Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House's Office of Administration, delivered the message to a federal judge anyway. Two days later, Trump boasted at a public event that he put Musk 'in charge' of DOGE, which was largely the opposite of the assertions in the White House's court filing. Three days after that, the president urged his ostensibly powerless adviser to 'get more aggressive,' at which point a Musk-driven email reached millions of federal employees, threatening their careers. So, which is it? Was the White House's court filing true, or not? Because at this point, Team Trump's contradictions are starting to overlap. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More than 20,000 US government employees willing to quit, source says
By David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 20,000 federal employees have informed the U.S. government they are willing to quit their posts under an incentive program that has a Thursday deadline, a source told Reuters. The White House last week offered 2 million civilian full-time federal workers an opportunity to stop working this week and receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30 as the Trump administration seeks to slash the size of the U.S. government. Some Democrats say the offer is not legal. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The White House said Sunday it was exempting public safety employees, including air traffic controllers, from the "deferred resignation program." The White House Office of Personnel Management defended the legality of the program in a memo to agencies on Tuesday.
Reuters
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
More than 20,000 US government employees willing to quit, source says
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - More than 20,000 federal employees have informed the U.S. government they are willing to quit their posts under an incentive program that has a Thursday deadline, a source told Reuters. The White House last week offered 2 million civilian full-time federal workers an opportunity to stop working this week and receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30 as the Trump administration seeks to slash the size of the U.S. government. Some Democrats say the offer is not legal. The White House said Sunday it was exempting public safety employees, including air traffic controllers, from the "deferred resignation program." The White House Office of Personnel Management defended the legality of the program in a memo to agencies on Tuesday.
