Read theMandate

Project 2025Chapter 3 › Proposal

Make performance the first factor in reductions-in-force

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, chapter 3, p. 79. Written by Donald Devine, Dennis Dean Kirk, Paul Dans.

Make performance the first factor in reductions-in-force

The document says “shouldWho acts: President, CongressHow: not specifiedp. 79 in the PDF
What the document says

“A determined President should insist that performance be first and be wary of costly types of reductions-in-force.”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 79

The chapter states that retention in a layoff currently turns on tenure, veterans' preference, seniority and performance in that order, notes that bills to weight performance more heavily failed in the House during the Trump years, and says a determined President should insist that performance come first.

What the document actually says

“A determined President should insist that performance be first and be wary of costly types of reductions-in-force.”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 79
That sentence, in plain words

A firm president should demand that how well people work counts first. He should also watch out for job cuts that cost a lot.

What this is about

When the government cuts jobs, four things decide who stays. How well a person works is last on that list. The book says a president should put how well they work first.

What has happened
Partly matches

Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Workforce Optimization Initiative

2025-02-11 · 90 FR 9669

Directs reductions in force, which is the subject of the chapter's proposal. The chapter's specific ask was to change the order of retention so that performance outranks tenure, veterans' preference and seniority, a change it noted had repeatedly failed as legislation. This order directs reductions; it is not established here that it reorders retention factors.

Share this page

How to read this page

The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page number against the book itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary, not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the quotation rather than replacing it.

All proposals in this chapter →