Lawmakers have wasted no time introducing measures to overhaul the civil service and adjust the size of the federal workforce, putting forward several pieces of legislation in the first week of the 115th Congress to make wide-ranging reforms.

Perhaps most notably, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., laid out his plan to reintroduce the Promote Accountability and Government Efficiency Act to turn all new federal workers into at-will employees. First presented in October during the last session of Congress, the measure would strip new federal hires from due process protections, instead allowing supervisors to fire them without notice or the opportunity to appeal. It would also allow agencies to immediately suspend current feds without warning and would prohibit any employees not receiving top marks on their performance reviews from getting a pay raise.

The at-will portion of the measure would only apply to new employees hired one year after its enactment, and allow agency heads to fire workers “without notice or right to appeal.” Employees fired under certain circumstances would retain appeal rights, but only to one agency. An excepted employee could, for example, appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but not both. Agencies would be required to notify new hires they are at-will employees upon onboarding them.

Other provisions of the bill would prevent feds found guilty of a work-related felony from collecting a retirement pension and allow agency heads to cut Senior Executive Service employees’ pay by downgrading them to a General Schedule position. It also would end the practice of official time, which allows employees to conduct mediation-type union activity while receiving a federal salary and working in a federal workspace.

The bill earned immediate rebuke from federal employee advocates, who said it would effectively end the apolitical civil service.

Already, the first bill approved by the House would require the Veterans Affairs Department to permanently note all reprimands and admonishments on employee records, and a resolution setting the rules for the House this session will allow lawmakers to eliminate federal employees’ jobs or reduce their pay through the appropriations process.

Here is a look at some other bills federal employees will want to keep an eye on, introduced during lawmakers' first week in session: