In the run-up to next week’s elections, Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas) is rolling out legislation, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, that will prevent career bureaucrats within the administration from undermining the next presidential administration.

The Stop Resistance Activities by Federal Employees Act (STRAFE) Act would “require the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to develop and implement mandatory training for covered Federal employees regarding compliance with directives from the President, Vice President, and other political appointees, and for other purposes,” according to the bill.

Pfluger’s legislation would require trainings for covered employees to explain prohibited activities that obstruct the administration’s policies; it also lays out penalties that could include fines or “removal, reduction in grade, debarment from Federal employment for a period not to exceed 5 years, suspension, or reprimand”

The STRAFE Act also includes a complaint reporting process outside of the traditional inspector generals channels and a requirement for a report that would quantify complaints and the status of actions.

“Career unelected bureaucrats cannot be allowed to undermine the agenda of any future President,” Pfluger told the Reporter. “We must ensure that the network of federal employees that brazenly carried out resistance activities under the first Trump Administration is not unleashed again.” His latest legislation comes at a critical juncture for both him and for the former president.

Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, told the Reporter in an interview that Trump “doesn’t want to make the same [personnel] mistakes, and he probably would have done a lot of things differently the first time.” 

Pfluger himself is currently running to take over the Republican Study Committee (RSC) next Congress; this bill keeps him in the spotlight in the days leading up to a contentious presidential election.