United States: On Thursday, the Biden administration provided final rules that intend to safeguard the jobs of 2.2 million federal employees, while his prospective counterpart, President Donald Trump, plans to replace thousands with staunch loyalists in case he returns to power.
Reversal of Trump-Era Executive Order
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management asserted that the rule intended to draw the line and repatriate the career civil service employees’ protections against wrongful firing that former President Trump tried to establish during his last days in office, as reported by Reuters.
Democratic President Joe Biden promptly reversed that executive order, known as Schedule F, within a month of his inauguration at the beginning of January 2021. Trump, in his presidential run, has promised to revive the rule, and the measure on Thursday will probably have very limited effect and only slow down the president’s implementation of it.
That means he could fire tens of thousands of career and political workers – nonloyal ones – and inject his people, ready to implement his self-described “retribution” agenda and do so against his former enemies.
Unions of public sector workers have already announced that they will sue any state executive trying to disenfranchise employees regarding job protection.
Protection of Civil Service
“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,” said Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja, in a statement.
James Sherk added his comments to the OPM that the bureaucracy within the federal government was a constraint to Trump’s agenda, especially during his term as the Republican ex-president. He was one of the architects of Schedule F.
Two judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the U.S. submitted last year that they have an unlimited ability to sack federal employees.
Historical Context
OPM observed that Congress (before 1883) passed a law establishing the civil service protections and merit system and that federal employees who don’t follow the direction of their leaders can already be at risk of discipline or firing, as reported by Reuters.
“This regulation will work to protect a civil service that implements the laws of the people and protects the rights and benefits of the people against partisan manipulation,” said Democratic U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin.