Government affairs

As the administration continues its work with the 115th Congress, several key departures have impacted the Executive Branch’s operations. The following departures have taken place as of today. Working backwards, major departures in 2018 include:

• Tom Bossert, Homeland Security Advisor, April 10
• Michael Anton, National Security Council spokesperson, April 8
• Gary Cohn, Director of the National Economic Council, April 2
• Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director, March 29
• David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, on March 28
• H.R. McMaster, National Security Adviser, on March 22
• Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, March 13
• John McEntee, Personal aide to the president, March 12
• Josh Raffel, Senior Communications Official, February 27
• Rob Porter, Staff Secretary, February 7
• Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI, January 29
• Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Adviser, January 12
• Walter Shaub, Director of the Office of Government Ethics, effective July 6, 2018

These high-profile departures are only from 2018 and do not include all of those from 2017. They vary from resignations to outright firings, and it is important to note that this Administration has had more departures than any other in at least 40 years. For example, more than 9 million veterans rely on the VA for medical care and in the same tweet that fired Shulkin, President Trump nominated his personal White House physician Ronny L. Jackson, a career Navy officer with little managerial experience, to head the second largest government agency.

While such drastic changes in leadership and other key government positions can leave gaping holes that are difficult to fill and bring about problems of their own. Letter carriers will continue to educate the executive and legislative branches to ensure letter carriers’ interests are represented.

NALC will closely monitor all appointments and nominees to ensure that letter carriers’ interests are represented.