ENVIRONMENTTrumps Questionnaire to Govt. Climate Scientists Just Leaked, and Its Terrifying
Now that Trump is weeks away from occupying the Oval Office his staff has been working towards that transition by sending out a questionnaire to individuals who are employed by the Department of Energy (DoE). The questionnaire is riddled with loaded questions, and the fear by some political analysts is Trump will use the answers given to marginalize employees who do not believe as he does.
In total 74 questions were presented for DoE employees to answer, many of which had little to do actual policy, and are believed to have been crafted in a way to allow Trump to be vindictive in the future. For example, one question asked employees to list any memberships they had to any professional society, which is not the business of an employer. The First Amendment provides individuals the freedom of association, and they may not be penalized by the government through sanction or otherwise. Further employees were asked to list any meetings which they attended on the subject of climate change, and to turn over any materials they retained from said meetings. Why would Trump be seeking this information for any reason other than to purge the DoE of those who believe in the overwhelming evidence of climate change?
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) called out Trump in a letter for his obtuse attempt at painting DoE employees into a corner. In part Markey’s letter said:
Any politically motivated inquisition against federal civil servants who, under the direction of a previous administration, carried out policies that you now oppose, would call into question your commitment to the rule of law and the peaceful transition of power. Civil servants should never be punished for having executed policies with which a new administration disagrees. That would be tantamount to an illegal modern-day political witch hunt, and would have a profoundly chilling impact on our dedicated federal workforce.
A former adviser to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which exists to protect federal workers from workplace retaliation, named Jason Zuckerman indicated Trump’s actions are not quite illegal — at least not yet. Zukerman said, “I think we’re probably not there yet, but the real issue will be, what will they do with that information?”
This same sentiment was echoed by Tom Divine, who is the legal director of the Government Accountability Project. He said of Trump’s questionnaire:
This type of action is designed to create the infrastructure to create an enemies list or a menu of federal workers who will be targeted and also to lay the foundation to engage in surveillance against potential whistleblowers.
Zuckerman warned, however, that employees have little wiggle room when working for the government. He elaborated, “One has to be very careful about this. In the U.S. government you don’t want to engage in insubordination. If you are asked to do something that’s reasonable and it’s legitimate, you have to do it.”
http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/12/11/trumps-questionnaire-govt-climate-scientists-just-leaked-terrifying/
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