Biden Aims to Fortify Federal Worker Protections Amid GOP Calls for Reductions
The Biden administration is working to bolster safeguards for federal employees in the face of Republican campaign promises, including those from frontrunner Donald Trump, to downsize and modify the federal workforce.
A newly proposed rule aims to clarify civil service protections for federal employees, making it more challenging to reclassify them into categories where they could lose certain protections. This initiative is designed to prevent a future Republican president from dismantling the federal civil service, an action that Trump had started to undertake during his last days in office.
“The proposed rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping to ensure they can carry out their duties without fear of political reprisal,” said Kiran Ahuja, Director of the Office of Personnel Management. “Career federal employees deliver critical services for Americans in every community. Prior attempts to needlessly politicize their work risked harming the American people.”
Towards the end of his term, Trump enacted an executive order that granted him and his appointees greater latitude in hiring and firing federal employees considered disloyal. Critics argued that this move could politicize the civil service and result in career officials being ousted for political reasons.
Trump had often criticized some career officials as the "deep state" and aimed to purge the federal government of individuals he perceived as against him. His executive order introduced a new category of federal employees, known as "Schedule F," for those in roles that are typically not subject to change during a presidential transition.
Although Biden reversed this order upon taking office, many Democrats are advocating for enhanced protections for federal employees in anticipation of the potential election of Trump or another Republican.
The rule proposed on Friday specifies that civil service protections can only be removed from employees if they voluntarily relinquish them. It would also make it more difficult to transition jobs into categories where protections could be removed.
In the Republican presidential primary, several candidates have echoed Trump's call to shrink the federal workforce. For instance, Vivek Ramaswamy announced this week his intention to dismiss 1 million federal workers, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis named multiple agencies he would abolish if elected.
Various conservative groups, many headed by former Trump administration officials, have also prepared plans to eliminate federal positions should a Republican regain the presidency.
