A package of bills introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., would freeze federal hiring and wages for a year and reintroduce a merit-based pay structure for federal employees, among other provisions.

Blackburn Thursday announced on X a single invoice as part of its DOGE Actbut a spokesperson for her office clarified in an email to FedScoop that she plans to introduce seven bills under that umbrella. The package would establish a pilot program for civilian federal government employees, codifying what President-elect Donald Trump attempted to establish during his first term with Appendix F. This bill would include an exclusion for agencies performing public safety and national security functions, meaning these employees would still benefit from typical federal job protections.

A Biden administration official from the Office of Personnel Management previously told FedScoop that implementing Schedule F — part of a 2020 Trump executive order that eases the president’s ability to fire federal employees – would harm the government’s ability to recruit top talent for positions in technology, IT, cyber and artificial intelligence.

The Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE, is a council that Trump plans to form with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to reduce waste in government. The spokesperson told FedScoop that the DOGE laws align with the duo’s “plan to make the federal government more efficient.”

The bills would allow each cabinet secretary appointed by the president-elect to reform federal agencies as they see fit, and would allow the hiring of appointees of the new administration.

As part of the package, Blackburn also plans to include legislation that would freeze federal hiring and wages for one year, with a cap on hiring in future years for three years. This follows repeated calls from the Biden administration for a a wave of technological talentspecifically focused on artificial intelligence. Democratic and Republican members of Congress have supported different bills that would support the preparation of potential hires work for the federal government within technology and technological positions.

Another DOGE bill would call for cuts to discretionary funding of up to 5%, with exclusions for public safety and national security agencies.

Blackburn also plans to create a commission that would report to Congress regarding the relocation of non-national security agencies out of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding metropolitan area. According to to OPM dataapproximately 15 percent of federal civilian employees live in and around Washington, and 85 percent of the federal workforce already lives and works outside this area.

A final bill from the Tennessee Republican would require executive agencies to submit to Congress a study on the impacts of expanding telework and remote work by employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a plan for each agency’s future use of telework and remote work. .