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WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s top human resources agency issued a new rule Thursday make it harder Fires thousands of federal employees in hopes of stopping former president Donald Trump’s promise Fundamentally reinventing the workforce If he wins back the White House in November, it will be along ideological lines.
The Office of Personnel Management rule would prohibit career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or other at-will personnel who are more susceptible to firing.
This is in response to Schedule F, an executive order issued by Trump in 2020 to allow tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees to be reclassified, thereby reducing their job security protections.
President Joe Biden Schedule F was abolished after taking office. But if Trump reinstates the system during his second administration, he could significantly add about 4,000 federal employees, who are considered political appointees and typically change with each new president.
Biden called the rule “a step toward combating corruption and partisan interference to ensure public servants can focus on the most important task at hand: serving the American people.”
The potential impact of this change is widespread, as it is unclear how many federal employees may be affected by Schedule F.The National Treasury Employees Union used a freedom of information request to obtain Document suggestions Workers such as office managers, human resources and cybersecurity specialists may be targeted for reclassification.
The new rules, designed to combat future Schedule F orders, detail procedural requirements for reclassifying federal employees and clarify that employees cannot be stripped of civil service protections regardless of job type. It also makes clear that the decision-making classification applies to non-career political appointments.
Associated Press reporter Jennifer King reported.
Prominent government groups and activists welcomed the change. They view solidifying federal worker protections as a top priority because replacing existing government employees with new, more conservative alternatives is a key part of a plan spearheaded by former Trump administration officials and the Heritage Foundation think tank. 2025 plan.
It calls for the review and possible firing of dozens of federal workers and the recruitment of conservative replacements in an effort to eliminate the “deep state” government bureaucracy that Republican leaders have long decried.
Doreen Greenwald, president of the Treasury Department union, said the new rules “will now make it more difficult for any president to arbitrarily fire nonpartisan professionals in our federal agencies just to benefit handpicked partisan loyalists.” Make space.”
But Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, countered that this was “another example of the Biden administration’s efforts to shield the federal workforce from accountability.”
“The Biden administration will further erode Americans’ confidence in government by allowing underperforming federal workers and those who seek to obstruct the duly elected president’s policies to remain entrenched in the federal bureaucracy,” Cuomo said in a statement. .”
He also pledged that his committee “will continue to provide rigorous oversight of the federal workforce” while exploring legislation “to hold an unelected, unaccountable federal workforce more accountable.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, who led a coalition of nearly 30 advocacy groups supporting the rule, called the rule an inconvenience to those behind Plan 2025. An “extremely powerful” counterattack by “well-resourced anti-democratic groups.”
“This is not a strange question, although it may sometimes be advertised as such,” Perryman said. “That’s really the basis of how we make sure that government works for the people, and to us, that’s what democracy is about.”
The 237-page rule has been published in the federal registry and will officially take effect next month.
The Office of Personnel Management first proposed the changes last November and has since reviewed and responded to more than 4,000 public comments. Some officials from top conservative groups opposed the rule, but about two-thirds of comments were in favor.
If Trump wins re-election, his administration may direct the Office of Personnel Management to draft new rules. But the process would take months and require detailed explanations of why the new regulations would be improvements — potentially allowing opponents to file legal challenges.
Rob Shriver, deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, said the new rule ensures federal employee protections “are not erased by technical, human resources processes,” which he said “Schedule F attempts to do.”
“This rule is about ensuring that the American public can continue to rely on federal workers to use their skills and expertise to do their jobs, regardless of their personal political beliefs,” Shriver said in an interview with reporters.
He noted that 85 percent of federal workers are stationed outside the Washington area and are “our friends, neighbors and family” who are “committed to serving the American people, not a political agenda.”
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