Hice: Biden’s Border Crisis Hurts Federal Workers

Doubles down on request for information on federal volunteers assisting on U.S. Southern Border

WASHINGTON – Today, Subcommittee on Government Operations Ranking Member Jody Hice (R-Ga.) released the following statement on his second letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) which doubles down on his request for information on the total number of federal employees diverted from their normal positions in order to assist in the care of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice is concerned the Biden Border Crisis is out of control and is worried the Biden administration is using federal employees to absorb the effects of his bad policy decisions to the detriment of the federal detailees, their home agencies and the Americans who rely upon them for services.    

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in coordination with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), solicited volunteers from across the federal government to serve up to 120-day deployment details to assist with caring for unaccompanied alien children during an unprecedented situation precipitated by the border crisis,” said Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice. “We need to understand the impact this program has had both on the federal detailees themselves and their home agencies. From what I have received thus far, it appears OPM has made no effort to determine the effects of this ill-conceived stop-gap measure. It strains belief that these details would not have significant effects on federal detailees and operations at their home agencies/departments, and I am dismayed that OPM appears to have performed no analysis of these impacts. To date, OPM’s detailee program appears to be just another example of the Biden Administration provoking a crisis without adequately planning for or assuring the well-being of those whom the crisis would affect.”

On April 21, 2021, Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice initially requested OPM to provide all information regarding the deployment of volunteer federal employees to the southern border.  In today’s letter, Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice is requesting a briefing and all documents and communications containing an analysis of the impact on the workforce.

Read the full letter to Director Ahuja here.