LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) - Pennsylvania's Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick called for civil service reform during a rally in Lancaster on Tuesday as part of the "America's Future Tour."
McCormick said, if elected to replace incumbent Senator Bob Casey (D), he would push for changes to who is working in the federal government.
"We need to change the culture in Washington, we need to be able to fire bureaucrats who are underperforming, they need to be driven by merit, they can't have a political agenda," said McCormick. "So we need to reform how we deal with civil service and be able to get rid of the bad apples, just like we do in any place in business."
Presumptive Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump has also called for changes to civil service, which could lead to the firing of thousands of federal workers.
Last month the federal government’s chief human resources agency issued a new rule on Thursday making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees.
The Office of Personnel Management regulations will bar career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or as other at-will workers, who are more easily dismissed from their jobs.
It comes in response to Schedule F, an executive order Trump issued in 2020 that sought to allow for reclassifying tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees and thus reduce their job security protections.
President Joe Biden nullified Schedule F upon taking office. But if Trump were to revive it during a second administration, he could dramatically increase the around 4,000 federal employees who are considered political appointees and typically change with each new president.
Biden called the rule a “step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people.’
TaNisha Cameron, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party Spokesperson, responded to McCormick's Lancaster rally by highlighting the issue of abortion in the race.
“David McCormick’s support for an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest is disqualifying – and as he campaigns in Lancaster today, he needs to answer for Trump’s suggestion that states should monitor women’s pregnancies.”
According to McCormick's campaign website, the former hedge fund manager and paratrooper is "pro-life, is opposed to a national abortion ban, and supports exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother."
McCormick was joined in Lancaster by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R).
