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.
It was DACA and it was a SCOTUS ruling.
“That’s really funny. In 2017 and 2018, the GOP controlled the POTUS and both houses of Congress. Trump tried to do the job for which he was elected, and Congress did everything it could to undermine his agenda.”
That was under Paul Ryan in the House, and we had the Russian Hoax “Mueller” “investigation, and then we lost the House to Nancy Pelosi in 2018, and she kept trying to impeach Trump one way or another.
Besides, I don’t think past or present GOP Congress leaders have shared my idea of legislating a civil service protection suspension.
Just move them to their new offices in Point Barrow, Alaska.
GOP = Gutless Old Plutocrats.
“The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule that protects employees in the civil service”
Last I checked, an OPM rule can be negated by a President. OPM does not make law. This can easily be undone. Also OPM cannot stop relocation of employees out into the country.
Build a huge federal storage warehouse in north Alaska, call it an office, and ship them.
Seattle. That’s where their new office is meant to be.
Demand a legitimate budget and then call out of member of Congress for them trying to fill a CR or Omnibus with all their BS, waste and fraud.
Then don’t sign anything and shut it all down. There are many things that still get funded and people still work.
While that’s going on, ensure that there is very strict oversight and evaluations of employee performance. Civil servants have lots of protection but a ‘paper trail’ of an employees laziness, ineptness, scamming time, abuse of sick time, claiming OT improperly, etc etc, can deal with folks.
Pretty soon, the pressure of actually having to do a job and perform just might for resignations.’’
And come budget time, clowns in Congress pass the budget, or whatever they call if, but it’s the Executive that implements it. Very easy to not fill positions, save money and let the taxpayers know what’s going on.
He will be able to take Congress apart with Truth Social, Twitter and the media.
Just move the bureaucracies. Commerce to Chicago, Agriculture to Kansas City,etc.
Oh, and EPA to Bayonne, New Jersey.
Civil servants have 120 days to relocate, or it is deemed that they have resigned their positions. . .
Just have the House do away with whole segments of budget supporting various Executive Branch Departments and let Trump drop the hatchet because of lack of legislative funding.
Look at what the new President of Argentina has done in terms of “taking a chainsaw” to their Executive Branch.
A clear example of how ineffectual and unimportant our legislative branch has become. We now have government by Executive and Bureaucrat. Congress is laughed at by the “Permanent Government.”
Just the thought of this is ridiculous. Why not just say the next President has to do what Joe Biden says he must do for the next 4 years.
This is just for show .............
I am sure that General Steel can be contracted to build office space near Nome, AK, Battle Mountain, NV, and a few other isolated places for these workers to be transferred to. If they refuse the transfer, grounds for firing. If they want living space, build barracks for them to live in or they can use their salary to buy/rent living space. Building temperature will be 68 in winter and 78 in summer. if possible, analog phone lines. And give them nothing important to do, counting paper clips for the next 30 years is fine by me. Do not hire any replacement workers when they quit or retire. Shrink the federal employee workforce.
There are 150,000 people to monitor.
Do you expect Trump to grab a clipboard and follow them all around?
JUst exactly who is going to do that work?
The Deep State is making it’s move to negate the 2024 election.
Biden’s administration announced its plan on issuing a Comrade Clause.
Who knew.
“ I am sure that General Steel can be contracted to build office space near Nome, AK”
Sure they can - by an Act of Congress appropriating the funds, that is.
Two points: Trump may not be the guy to get all this done - but since he will face unified bipartisan opposition in Congress and defiance from the courts, unless he has a plan to dissolve Congress and rule by force none of this has a chance in Hell of happening.
Each federal department only needs 50 employees. 1 each to monitor each of the 50 states.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.