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Energy Department Refuses To Give Trump Team Names of People Who Worked On Climate Change (businessinsider.com)
The Department of Energy said Tuesday it will reject the request by President-elect Donald Trump's transition team to name staffers who worked on climate change programs. Energy spokesman Eben Burnhan-Snyder said the agency received "significant feedback" from workers regarding a questionnaire from the transition team that leaked last week. From a Reuters story, syndicated on BusinessInsider: The response from the Energy Department could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. "Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people," Eben Burnham-Snyder, Energy Department spokesman said. "We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team."
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday
it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald
Trump's Energy Department transition team for the names of people
who have worked on climate change and the professional society
memberships of lab workers.
The response from the Energy Department could signal a rocky
transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential
friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain
in place.
The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by
Reuters last week contains 74 questions including a request for a
list of all department employees and contractors who attended the
annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within
the last five years.
Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the
department will not comply.
"Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at
our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and
the important work our department does to benefit the American
people," Burnham-Snyder said.
"We are going to respect the professional and scientific
integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and
across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with
all publicly available information with the transition team. We
will not be providing any individual names to the transition
team."
He added that the request "left many in our workforce unsettled."
Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick
Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy
Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on
nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy,
advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science.
The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors
who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a
measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and
benefits of new energy and environment regulations. It also asked
for all publications written by employees at the department's 17
national laboratories for the past three years.
Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo.
"This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies
list," a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be
identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition
team, had told Reuters.
Republican Trump said during his election campaign that climate
change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S.
manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year's landmark
global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President
Barack Obama.
Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he
will keep an "open mind" about the Paris deal. He also met with
former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on
climate change.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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Nothing Trump has said makes anybody think they would want this list for anything good. Trump is an ignorant, egotistical fool. I'm not even sure he means well, I think he's doing the whole president thing solely for his ego. While the backlash that would occur should the electoral college not install Trump would be massive, I think they would be fully justified in not voting for him. This is exactly why the electoral college exists, but it's unfortunate that there are no good alternatives to Trump right now. At least the alternatives wouldn't be doing it for their ego, and wouldn't be completely ignorant about pretty much everything.
Short version: There is more than a century of precedent to protect federal employees, both their privacy, as well as their employment.
Longer version:
From the US Merit System Protection Board
Employees should be retained on the basis of adequacy of their performance, inadequate performance should be corrected, and employees should be separated who cannot or will not improve their performance to meet required standards.
Employees should be protected against arbitrary action, personal favoritism, or coercion for partisan political purposes
Also see the Wikipedia Article
And for an even longer version, read up about the US "Spoils System", and how it lead to the assassination of a President. It was then replaced by the Merit System, in 1883.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
I work in government IT. No one is worried about Trump. No one.
The last president that promised to cut government and eliminate entire departments was Ronald Regan. He eliminated zero departments and greatly expanded the size of government. The only post-war president to cut the size of government, as a percentage of GDP, was Bill Clinton. But he had it easy after the bloat of the Reagan years. Conservatives didn't love Reagan because of what he did, but because of what he said. Same for liberals and Bill Clinton.
The lesson Donald should learn from this is that what he says means a lot more than what he does. Talk big, do little, blame others, be popular. If he sticks to this formula, he should coast to reelection in 2020.
How the fuck did this guy get modded up? Trump is NOT his employer. Trump is fucking civilian until he actually takes the office.
And even then he will NOT be their employer (and he will still be a civilian). He does not own the United States or Federal Government. He is temporary management hired by the voters, and lacks unlimited powers, even within the executive branch which he manages. We do not elect gods, or kings, or tyrants (only tyrant-wannabes).
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
You don't know. All the Departments in the cabinet are established by Federal law as passed by Congress.