Press Releases

Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s Modern Employment Reform, Improvement, and Transformation (MERIT) Act is a huge step in ensuring quality customer service for the American people, streamlining the process and lessening the time it takes to dismiss poor performing or negligent employees. It shouldn’t take over a year to remove a bad employee, as under the current system. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) has introduced this bill in the Senate.

Here’s what some are saying about the MERIT Act:

Americans for Prosperity: “Public employees deserve competitive pay and benefits, as well as a just system of employment that encourages them to reach their full potential. Government employers must be able to reward strong performance and hold workers accountable when necessary. The Modern Employment Reform, Improvement, and Transformation (MERIT) Act would provide greater flexibility for the federal government to staff its workforce with the best talent. It would make it easier to discipline and remove workers that act unethically or adversely affect government services. We’re proud to stand behind Senator Perdue and Representative Loudermilk in this effort to bring better results and greater accountability to our government.” – Erica Jedynak, Director of Employment Initiatives, Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Tax Reform: “Americans for Tax Reform strongly supports Senator Perdue and Rep. Loudermilk's MERIT Act because U.S. taxpayers should only pay for competent, law-abiding federal employees. The MERIT Act strengthens the federal workforce and ensures taxpayer money is spent wisely.” – Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

Americans for Limited Government: “You can’t drain the swamp unless you can fire the swamp. The MERIT Act allows a faster pathway for firing incompetent, lazy or recalcitrant federal employees and is a necessary first step toward ending the politicization of the federal civil service workforce. We thank Senator Perdue and Rep. Loudermilk for taking on this important piece of legislation.” – Rick Manning, President, Americans for Limited Government

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste: “Holding federal employees to high standards is the best way to show respect to the citizens who pay their salaries, and the MERIT Act would be a gigantic step toward doing just that.” – Tom Schatz, President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Less Government: “Welcome back to what should be called ‘The Drop Dead Weight Act’ – because that’s what it finally begins to allow the federal government to do. Also because I’m still fairly sure no government employee knows what the word ‘Merit’ means. That being said, I wholeheartedly applaud the growing number of bicameral sponsors for this bill. May it quickly become law – and allow a very willing Donald Trump Administration to begin shedding the very many unnecessary staffing pounds. Drain the Swamp, indeed. For real this time.” – Seton Motley, President, Less Government

National Taxpayers Union: “National Taxpayers Union is pleased to once again offer our strong support for the MERIT Act. This important legislation would bring commonsense reforms to government by making it easier to terminate underperforming federal employees. Due to the arduous termination process, it is often easier for federal agencies to simply retain workers that would otherwise be let go if they were in the private sector. Holding federal employees to similar standards as those in the private sector would help curb wasteful spending, increase productivity, and boost morale. We look forward to helping this pro-taxpayer proposal become law so it can make an immediate difference within the federal bureaucracy.” – Thomas Aiello, Policy and Government Affairs, National Taxpayers Association

R Street Institute: "The civil service is the bedrock of our executive branch. It is they who carry out the daily work of making government work for the people. Good government requires high quality employees. Unfortunately, today's civil service protocols make it very costly and very difficult for an agency to fire an underperforming federal employee. No private company could succeed with such restrictions. The MERIT Act is a good start for Congress' re-evaluation and modernization of the civil service. It balances workers' protections against arbitrary removal and agency managers' critical need to have the best possible workforce serving the public." – Kevin Kosar, Vice President of Policy, R Street Institute