Vice President Kamala Harris has spent the past few months defining her own campaign, separate from the messaging of President Joe Biden.

But on the topic of the federal workforce, Harris is running on a record of leadership positions she held under the Biden administration. Here’s a closer look at where she stands on federal workforce issues:

Federal workforce, unions

At a campaign stop in September, Harris said she would eliminate college degree requirements for some federal jobs if elected. The Biden administration has championed skills-based hiring in some fields — particularly in technical roles.

“As president, I will get rid of the unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs to increase jobs for folks without a four-year degree,” Harris said in a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The White House announced in April 2024 that it would move away from relying on college degrees for approximately 100,000 federal IT jobs across the federal government.

As vice president, Harris served as chairwoman of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. Biden created the task force through an April 2021 executive order seeking to strengthen collective bargaining rights for federal employees.

The task force laid out 70 recommendations to improve labor-management relations for the federal workforce.

At the time the task force published its initial recommendations, more than 300,000 federal employees eligible to join a union were not actually in one.

Among the recommendations, the task force said the Office of Personnel Management should remove unnecessary barriers in federal workplaces impeding unions’ ability to organize employees and increase membership.

In line with the task force’s recommendations, OPM in October 2021 issued new guidance urging agencies to inform prospective employees, new hires and current federal workers about their collective bargaining rights and details on the labor unions at their organizations.

At a White House event, Harris said the administration strived to remove barriers to organizing in the federal government and ultimately hoped to become “the most pro-union administration in the history of America.”

“We know that this effort is going to impact a lot of people,” she said. “But we also know that by example we can hopefully encourage all workplaces and all industries to look at what is in the best interest of productivity, in the best interest of morale and in the best interest, of course, of valuing the dignity of work.”

The task force aims to position the federal government as a model employer.

“We’re going to look in the mirror, as the administration that is over this federal government, and look at the condition and the well-being of federal workers,” Harris said during a March 10, 2023 task force meeting. “We have been doing the work of informing the federal workforce, and by extension, their family members and the public in general, about the benefits of union membership.”

Biden approved all 70 of the task force’s recommendations in February 2022. Since then, the task force said agencies have made significant progress in implementing the changes, leading to an influx of union membership.

As vice president, Harris also cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to confirm Kiran Ahuja, the Biden administration’s first permanent pick to lead OPM. Ahuja stepped down as OPM director in April 2024.

Endorsements

The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union both endorse Harris.

AFGE said its endorsement that as a senator, Harris “stood shoulder-to-shoulder” with the union to secure critical personal protective equipment and sick leave for federal employees at the height of the pandemic, voted to avoid government shutdowns, and defended staffing levels at collective bargaining across the federal government.

NTEU National President Dorren Greenwald said Harris has been a “strong advocate for the issues that matter most to federal employees” — including fair pay, paid family leave, adequate agency funding and staffing, and robust collective bargaining rights

“Kamala Harris has a long career in public service, which has given her a keen understanding of how the skilled civil servants who perform the day-to-day work of government are vital to our democracy,” Greenwald said. “She is a powerful voice for workers and their unions, recognizing that taxpayers are better served when the federal workforce is organized and empowered to help agencies meet their important public service missions.”

The National Federation of Federal Employees wrote on its website earlier this month that “Harris is set to carry on Biden’s legacy as a pro-union president.”

Unions representing Postal Service employees have also endorsed Harris. They include the National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Postal Workers Union and National Postal Mail Handlers Union.

The National Rural Letter Carriers Union does not endorse presidential candidates.

Artificial intelligence

Harris also played a leading role in the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate the use of AI tools in government, while also putting policies in place that would prevent agencies from misusing these emerging tools.

The Office of Management and Budget in March 2024 released its first governmentwide policy on how agencies should mitigate the risks of AI while harnessing its benefits.

Harris told reporters in a call that OMB’s guidance sets up several “binding requirements to promote the safe, secure and responsible use of AI by our federal government.”

“When government agencies use AI tools, we will now require them to verify that those tools do not endanger the rights and safety of the American people,” Harris said.

“If the Veterans Administration wants to use AI in VA hospitals to help doctors diagnose patients, they would first have to demonstrate that AI does not produce racially biased diagnoses,” she added.

Walz on VA issues

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, previously served as the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. In this leadership role, Walz weighed in on several issues that the VA continues to address.

As the top Democrat on the committee, Walz supported the 2017 VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. The legislation allowed the VA to fast-track the firing of employees for alleged misconduct or poor performance.

“For too long, secretaries of the VA have been without the tools they need to hold underperforming employees accountable; this bipartisan legislation will finally change that,” Walz said in a statement in June 2017, after President Donald Trump signed the bill into law.

The Trump administration, however, didn’t bargain with AFGE over the implementation of the 2017 law, violating provisions of its contract with the union. The VA defended its position in court between 2017 and 2023, but federal courts and arbitrators repeatedly ordered the VA to reinstate employees it fired under the legislation.

Under the Biden administration, the VA reached settlement with AFGE in July 2023. The department agreed to compensate former employees fired under the 2017 law, or reinstate former employees who were fired for minor offenses.

Under the Biden administration, VA leaders decided that, starting in April 2024, the department would no longer use authorities in the 2017 legislation to expedite the firing of employees.

As the House deliberated on the 2017 bill, Walz said he wouldn’t have supported the bill if he thought it stripped away federal employees’ due process rights.

“It is true we need accountability,” Walz said in June 2017. “That’s not code word for something. That’s not code word to fire everybody. That’s not code word to break a union. It also shouldn’t be code word to pretend everything is fine there and everything is working well.”

While serving on the committee, Walz also pressed the VA for accountability when its Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), the 1-800 suicide crisis hotline, couldn’t handle and properly manage incoming calls from veterans who needed help.

“This is the one area where we are shooting for perfection,” Walz said in April 2017. “Every single one of those calls is life or death. Every single one of those interventions is life or death, and if it’s viewed anything short of that, we’re certainly failing.”

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