It Takes People To Provide Public Service

From Joe Davidson's Federal Diary column in the Washington Post:

During a period when federal employees have been targeted again and again, it's not surprising that House Republicans' "Pledge to America" would promise to freeze the federal workforce. ...

Promoting the plan on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind), chairman of the House Republican Conference, was clear: "We can reduce government employment back down to 2008 levels."

Federal workers are always an easy target, but it's worth examining whether a freeze would come at the expense of public service....

[R]eturning to employment levels in effect at the end of George W. Bush's presidency could mean service backlogs in many government programs. Take the Social Security Administration for example. It provides payments to retirees, people with disabilities and others. The number of the agency's pending cases and the time it takes to process them has been a serious problem.

Recently, there has been progress as a result of agency hiring. ...

Technology is great, but it takes people to provide public service.