President Biden’s administration is introducing new rules that will make it more difficult to fire federal workers, as former President Trump promises to overhaul the workforce to root out the “deep state.”
The White House released the Democratic incumbent’s statement on the “Final Rule to Protect Nonpartisan Public Employees” early Thursday morning.
Biden said his administration has announced that it will “protect 2.2 million career public servants from political interference to ensure they carry out their duties in the best interests of the American people.”
“Every day, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity needed to make our democracy work,” the statement said. “They provide Americans with life-saving and life-changing services and create opportunities for millions of people. That is why, since taking office, I have worked to strengthen, empower and reimagine the career workforce. I did.”
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February 13, 2024, Theodore Roosevelt Building, home of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Biden saw the rule as “a step toward combating corruption and partisan interference so that public officials can focus on their most important job at hand: serving the American people.”
The Office of Personnel Management, the government’s top human resources agency, on Thursday implemented new regulations that prohibit career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or other at-will workers. These workers are more easily fired from their jobs. According to the Associated Press, this is in response to President Trump’s 2020 “Schedule F,” which allows tens of thousands of 2.2 million federal employees to be reclassified and reduces job security. It is said that this was what he was looking for.
Mr. Biden revoked Schedule F when he took office, but if Mr. Trump reinstated it during his second administration, about 4,000 federal employees who are considered political appointees and who typically change hands with each new president would There is a possibility of significantly increasing the number of employees. The number of employees affected by Schedule F is unknown.
The National Treasury Employees Union used a Freedom of Information request to obtain documents suggesting federal employees, including the executive director and human resources and cybersecurity experts, may have been targeted for reclassification. This means that the scope of President Trump’s order may have been broader than previously thought. Associated Press reported.
The new rules could help counter future Schedule F orders by spelling out procedural requirements for reclassification of federal employees and making it clear that no employee, regardless of their job title, may be stripped of the civil service protections they enjoy. There is sex. It also makes clear that the policymaking classification applies to non-career political appointments and not to career civil servants.
President Biden speaks about reducing health care costs at the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The Biden administration has implemented new rules that will make it harder to fire federal employees. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement: “A president who arbitrarily fires nonpartisan professionals staffing federal agencies just to make space for hand-picked partisan allies. “It will become much more difficult in the future.”
Good government groups, liberal think tanks, and activists support this rule. They consider that replacing existing government employees with new, more conservative replacements is a key part of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page plan, known as “Project 2025.” He deemed strengthening protections for federal employees a top priority.
The plan would vet and potentially fire scores of federal employees and hire conservative replacements to clean up what some Republicans have denounced as a “deep state” government bureaucracy. is required to do so.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancia, File)
The nation’s most prominent conservative think tank has recommended an overhaul of the Justice Department and FBI to combat “radical liberal policies.”
The Biden administration’s 237-page rule is listed in the federal register and is expected to officially go into effect next month. The Office of Personnel Management first proposed the change last November and has since reviewed it and responded to more than 4,000 public comments. Although executives from some top conservative organizations also opposed the new rules, about two-thirds of comments were supportive.
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If Trump wins another term, his administration could direct the Office of Personnel Management to draft new rules. But the process would take months, require detailed explanations of why the new regulations would be an improvement, and could open up legal challenges by opponents.
Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
