Posted on 04/04/2024 11:49:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
President Joe Biden’s administration announced its plan on Thursday to protect bureaucrats from being fired by a potential second Trump administration.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule that protects employees in the civil service by preventing the removal of their status and protections involuntarily, according to a press release. Under the new rule, an administration wishing to shift federal employees to a new category making them easier to fire would have to go through an elongated process, a move meant to be more time-consuming for a future president, Politico reported.
“Career federal employees deliver critical services for Americans in every community,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said in a press release. “This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can carry out their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty. The Biden-Harris Administration is deeply committed to the federal workforce, as these professionals are vital to our national security, our health, our economic prosperity, and much more.”
The rule is widely viewed as a response to an executive order signed in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, Politico reported. The executive order targeted federal workers, removing protections from some employees and make it easier for the president to hire and fire them.
The executive order took some entrenched bureaucrats “in positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character” and put them in a different category considered “Schedule F,” making them easier to fire.
The OPM rule quotes this language directly, even referencing “Schedule F.”
The final rule advances “policy goals,” the press release states, by “clarifying that the phrase ‘confidential, policy determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating’ positions—a term of art to describe positions that lack civil service protections—means noncareer, political appointments. This rule prevents that exception from being misapplied to career civil servants.”
“Schedule F,” the OPM press release stated, would have rid employees of their civil service protections which ensure that employment decisions are “based on merit, not political considerations. ”
The final rule is set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the press release stated.
“This rule is about making sure the American public can continue to count on federal workers to apply their skills and expertise in carrying out their jobs, no matter their personal political beliefs,” OPM Deputy Director Rob Shriver told reporters, according to Politico.
In addition to Trump’s executive order, conservatives have pushed the importance of remaking the federal bureaucracy, and Trump allies have indicated it could be a key priority in a second term. In 2023, a majority of political donations made by federal employees went to President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats, a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis found.
What can be done by an executive order can be undone by an executive order. No president can bind a future president by an executive order.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule
OK—don’t fire them—get rid of the departments they work in.
So? Ignore it.
Fire away.
Or, there are surely some paper clips that need counting in Alaska.......................
Koran Abuja.
The characterization of many of them as blood-sucking-ticks is accurate in more ways than one.
I’m sorry, that’s not true.
Remember the Obama executive order Trump tried to reverse, and the courts ruled that he didn’t have the authority?
There are other tactics that could be used to rid us of a large swath of the bureaucratic class, but no one in power has the stones to use them.
Rules made by bureaucrats are not laws passed by congress.
If I was Mr Trump, I’d go all Reagan on the entire federal workforce outside of the Military, delete unneeded departments, and start over.
Trump needs to come in & shut down WHOLE DEPARTMENTS. That rules won’t help them if he does.
I did not know there was one. I thought they were both the party of big gubmint.
Very simple, rules can be made, rules can be changed. These regulatory, not laws approved by Congress. Further, they might not be constitutional to begin with.
Jan. 20-Trump should announce that one half of all employees will be terminated in one year. Caveat: If you resign within 48 hours I’ll pay you for 2 years.
The late Harry Browne.
While he’s on a roll he can reprogram EBT cards to work on rice and beans only. Obama phones to dial 911 only.
If Trump wins a second term, this time he needs to fire all political appointees day one. That will take some prep, but sure better than leaving enemies within the system.
Because the fix isn’t in. Don’t lose hope.
Is the Office of Personnel Management part of the Executive Branch?
That was going to be my question; if you can’t fire them I guess you got to kill them?
IF you had to kill them it would probably reduce Federal Bureaucracy by about 90%.
This would be a good thing in most folks opinion.
Yes................
I'm all for your approach, they won't be missed. There are many meaningless agencies out there that have long severed such a purpose.
It's called counting paper clips at GSA. TSA also could use a few.
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