Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has joined some of his Republican colleagues in sending a letter to the Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Robert Shriver, requesting transparency regarding the conversion of Biden administration political appointees into nonpolitical permanent positions, also known as “burrowing.”
According to American Oversight, concerns about burrowing include the possibility of former appointees “thwarting future initiatives of a president of another party.”
Sen. Scott joins Ranking Member Rand Paul (R-KY) and other Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) in crafting and sending the letter to OPM Acting Director Shriver.
Their main concern is that Acting Director Shriver is following the law regarding burrowing and providing transparent updates to HSGAC.
“Current law requires the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) to provide Congress with quarterly updates on burrowing of current or former political appointees,” Sen. Scott and others wrote. “While we appreciate your submissions this year, the information provided only covers through June 30, 2024, leaving a substantial opportunity for individuals to burrow during the final 6 months of President Biden’s administration.”
Furthermore, the senators gave examples of the most recent report, which demonstrated that there has, in fact, been burrowing, but nothing has been done about it.
“The most recent report provided seven examples of burrowing, five of which were approved by OPM, two of which remain pending, and none of which were denied. Of the five approved conversions, four received substantial raises, including one receiving a nearly $80,000 increase in base pay,” Scott and the GOP senators stated.
They concluded the body of their letter by saying this process is paramount for public trust in government.
“Ensuring the integrity of the federal workforce from partisan influence is critical to the public’s trust in government. A past prominent example of the abuse of the political conversion system was Leandra English who used her conversion from a political appointee in the Obama Administration to a career position at the CFPB, to then suing President Trump for control over the CFPB,” the legislators wrote.
They requested the following information from Acting Director Shriver by November 22:
- An unredacted and non-anonymized list of individuals who have requested to be converted from a current or prior political position to a career position from June 30, 2024 to the date of your response, including:
- The employee’s full name;
- The employee’s current or former political position;
- The employee’s date of appointment to the political position and, if applicable, the date the employee ceased to serve in a political position;
- All jobs previously held by the employee requesting a conversion;
- All salaries received by the employee requesting a conversion during his or her tenure at the agency and the date of any changes in salary;
- The proposed nonpolitical position title, office, and agency the political appointee has requested conversion to;
- The proposed civil service grade and basic rate of pay for the employee in the requested role;
- The status of the conversion request;
- The date of appointment to the nonpolitical position, if applicable; and,
- Any OPM findings from its review of the individual’s requested conversion and any corrective action taken.
- All unredacted and non-anonymized information requested in 1.a.-j. for January 1, 2024 – June 30, 2024.
- Weekly updates for all information requested in 1.a.-j. between OPM’s response and January 20, 2025.
