[President Donald Trump Signed Executive Order to Give Himself More Control Over Federal Workforce
President Donald Trump wasted no time signing an executive order on Monday that aims to give him more control over the federal workforce, whom he has long vilified as the “deep state.” The order reverses a rule put in place by former President Joe Biden that bolstered protections for career federal workers.
The new order seeks to revive an executive order Trump signed in 2020 that created a category for federal employees involved in policy, known as Schedule F, making it easier to fire them. Biden had quickly reversed the order, and last year finalized a new rule that further protected career federal workers.
Trump’s latest executive order directs the Office of Personnel Management to rescind any changes made by the 2020 rule that would impede or affect the implementation of Trump’s 2020 directive. He also revoked his predecessor’s 2021 executive order that rescinded the original Schedule F order, a more conventional move.
The order is expected to face multiple legal challenges, as it is highly unusual for an executive order to undo a rule. Traditionally, undoing or revising a rule requires a new rule, a process that can take months, and cannot be done by executive order.
Critics of the move say it would politicize the civil service, allowing the president to fire career employees for political reasons and replace them with those who are loyal to him. It also strips federal workers of their due process protections and eliminates their ability to appeal to other independent agencies.
“We believe that President Trump’s order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “It will remove hundreds of thousands of federal jobs from the nonpartisan, professional civil service and make them answerable to the will of one man.”
The National Treasury Employees Union has promised to “fight” Trump’s effort to overhaul the civil service, saying it will “preserve the tradition” of having government services delivered by qualified, nonpartisan professionals.
Trump’s renewed effort to reshape the federal government and its workforce is aimed at ensuring loyalty to him and his policies, allowing him to avoid the hurdles he faced in getting key initiatives over the finish line during his first term. In the order, he wrote, “Accountability is essential for all Federal employees.”
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