The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed a rule to prevent the reclassification of thousands of federal workers, making it harder for a future administration to fire them. This move is seen as a response to former President Donald Trump's plan to radically reshape the federal government by firing tens of thousands of government workers.
Michael Linden, a former Obama administration official, acknowledges that there is no "magic bullet" to prevent a future president from making damaging changes. The White House is reluctant to discuss a potential second Trump term, focusing instead on reelecting President Biden.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has called on Biden to issue executive orders limiting the use of the military domestically, in response to Trump's plans to send troops to the southern border or Democrat-run cities.
Central to Trump's plans is the removal of government workers, potentially to be replaced with loyalists. Trump sought to reclassify thousands of federal employees as "Schedule F," stripping them of job protections and making them at-will employees. Biden revoked this order, but Trump has said he will revive it if he wins the election.
The OPM's proposed rule makes it more difficult to reclassify employees and allows anyone moved into a potential "Schedule F" to retain their protections against being fired. This rule has been endorsed by 27 advocacy organizations.
Conservatives are strategizing on how to fire employees to make room for Trump appointees. James Sherk, a former Trump administration official, opposes the rule, arguing that worker protections enable career staff to stymie conservative policies.
Many liberals are promoting a separate OPM rule that could slow future executive branch orders to relocate government agencies. Federal rules can be the basis for lawsuits and have been used to challenge Trump priorities on issues ranging from immigration to the environment.
Advocates say Biden has more options to thwart a Trump administration, from promoting expanded collective bargaining agreements with federal personnel to beginning the complicated bureaucratic task of designating more government posts as policy-dedicated.
No comments:
Post a Comment