In this July 7, 2016 file photo, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), right, confers with the committee’s ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairs the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that oversees the federal workforce and management issues. Last month he outlined a sweeping agenda that could result in congressional action on topics ranging from firing feds faster, to changing the retirement system for new hires and possibly giving some workers pay raises.

Sitting next to him on the committee room dais is the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.). They have a good working relationship and the committee is a more cooperative and collegial place under their leadership than it was when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was chairman.

Yet, Chaffetz and Cummings can also have strong disagreements – the federal workforce is one example. That was evident when we interviewed Cummings by email last week. Most of the questions focused on points raised by Chaffetz in a briefing last month. We also asked Cummings about an area of agreement he has with the chairman – the dubious ethical behavior by White House counselor Kellyanne Conway who used her position to promote products by the company of Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter.

In a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Cummings and Chaffetz asked it to review Conway’s statements and recommend “appropriate disciplinary action.”

“If a regular federal employee did what Kellyanne Conway did, he or she would probably be suspended for several days,” Cummings said in the interview. He cited agencies where employees could suffer a two-week suspension.

Speaking of suspending a federal employee who also happens to be a top Trump appointee, Cummings told ABC News on Sunday that Michael Flynn, the national security adviser, should have his security clearance suspended while allegations that he discussed sanctions, before the inauguration, with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, then lied about it, are investigated.

Suspending and firing feds faster — regular folks, not Trump administration VIPs — has been a recurring theme among Republicans. It recently emerged in legislative proposals and in recommendations by advisers to Trump when he was a candidate.

“With millions of federal employees working across the country, there are bound to be cases in which disciplinary measures are warranted,” Cummings said. “There have been cases in which managers take too long to act, but often that’s because they fail to use existing tools — not because the law stood in their way.   The solution is better training for managers on disciplinary procedures, as well as better funding and staffing for human resources departments.”

Chaffetz wants the federal retirement system to move away from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system that he said would save the government money. Such a system, however, would probably mean an effective cut in compensation for feds through greater out of pocket costs for employees.