In a great victory for all federal employees, the Trump nominee for OPM director, George Nesterczuk, withdrew his nomination for consideration yesterday. Many NFFE members remember Mr. Nesterczuk from his work in the mid-2000s promoting the now-defunct National Security Personnel System (NSPS).
In the end, NSPS cost the taxpayers over a billion dollars in wasted money and resources implementing the flawed system only to extract it several years later after the federal courts determined that NSPS was illegal pursuant to a lawsuit by the labor unions. The fight against NSPS brought the federal labor unions together and the coalition built to fight against NSPS still exists today. NFFE is honored to co-chair its legislative committee, and it is this committee that rallied together to derail the Nesterczuk nomination.
“We are pleased that Mr. Nesterczuk withdrew his nomination for Director of OPM,” stated Randy Erwin, NFFE National President. “Regardless of the suspicions surrounding his international affairs, Mr. Nesterczuk’s previous work on the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars implementing and then withdrawing a fatally flawed personnel system. OPM requires a leader that understands the technical and operational complexities of the federal government. OPM does not need a leader who is ideologically driven nor one who is blind to the importance of an apolitical career federal workforce.”
Here is the timeline on Mr. Nesterczuk’s nomination:
- President Trump nominates on May 23rd;
- Including NFFE, sixteen labor organization sent a letter to the Senate HSGAC opposing his nomination for various reasons (July 26th);
- Washington Post article is written about the labor letter of opposition (July 26th);
- Mr. Nesterczuk pulls his name from consideration for OPM Director, as detailed in a GovExec article last night.
If he were to have been confirmed, there is little doubt that Mr. Nesterczuk would have attempted to push policies to erode due process protections for federal workers (like he did as one of the architects of NSPS); erode collective bargaining protections for federal workers, including going after official time, and pushed policies to open the doors for wholesale privatization of federal jobs, among other offensive things.
THANK YOU to all NFFE members who contacted their Senators in opposition to the Nesterczuk nomination!