The Office of the Special Counsel wants to see the law governing the political activity of federal employees updated. Carolyn Lerner, head of the OSC, told Fede...
wfedstaff | April 17, 2015 3:33 pm
By Jack Moore
Federal News Radio
The law governing the political activity of federal employees is an anachronism in today’s technology-driven world and “desperately needs to be updated,” the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Carolyn Lerner, told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris.
OSC has sent draft legislation of a Hatch Act overhaul to Congress.
The original law was created in 1939.
“Roosevelt was president and typewriters were about the most advanced means of communication,” Lerner said.
But the original aims of the legislation, last updated in 1993, were noble: to get politics out of the federal government and ensure the protection of the merit system for federal employees, Lerner said.
“The law desperately needs to be updated. What we’re seeing now is unfair results and probably unintended consequences that were never meant to be part of the act,” she added.
OSC’s proposed update is two-pronged. It would:
Reception on the Hill
The office introduced its proposal to Congress last week. Lerner said she’s hopeful it will be embraced on the Hill.
“Our sense is that there’s going to be strong bipartisan support,” she said. The office is in contact with several members of Congress who have voiced support for the overhaul.
“This is a piece of legislation that would be good for the government, it would not cost any money and I think it’s really a bipartisan issue,” Lerner said. And we hope that there’ll be lots of bipartisan support.”
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