The Trump administration on Thursday announced a new rule to make it easier to fire senior-level civil servants.
Why it matters: An estimated 50,000 workers would fall into the new category, effectively placing them on an at-will footing similar to private-sector employees, who can be dismissed for nearly any reason.
- The White House says the aim is to improve performance.
- Critics say it will politicize the workforce and harm the public interest.
- Some warn it's a step toward the kind of patronage system a civil service was meant to stamp out.
Zoom in: The new Schedule Policy/Career rule released Thursday follows an executive order signed by Trump last year.
- The rule eliminates the current, often lengthy process for firing senior federal workers who implement policy.
- The goal "is to ensure that the president has the ability to effect his policy priorities in cooperation with senior management," Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor said in a call with reporters Thursday morning.
The big picture: The White House has fired or forced out hundreds of thousands of federal employees over the past year — many long regarded as top performers.
State of play: The new rule overhauls — or undercuts, critics say — the process for reporting wrongdoing inside the federal government.
- Trump earlier fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an agency that investigates whistleblower complaints and prosecutes any retaliation against those who come forward.
- Its head is appointed by the president for a fixed term and was considered quasi-independent — although on Thursday a senior OPM official played down that status and emphasized that this was an appointed role.
Where it stands: The new rule gives agencies, not the Office of Special Counsel, oversight over whistleblowers. That's potentially a far trickier process for agency employees.
- A senior OPM official said Thursday that agency officials would be "unbiased" and that there wouldn't be any erosion of the whistleblower process.
Friction point: Research looking at the state governments that have adopted similar at-will policies shows it raises the risk that workers are fired for political reasons unrelated to performance, and that it discourages whistleblowing.
- The policy also increases turnover and raises costs.
Between the lines: The purpose of offering extra protections for civil servants is to insulate them from politics and to offer scientists and experts protections for sharing expertise and insights.
- Think economists looking at jobs data that signals bad news on the economy, meteorologists giving insights on the coming hurricane season, or medical researchers explaining how vaccine science works.
- The agency says its rule would prohibit "political patronage, loyalty tests or political discrimination."
Reality check: The new rule covers only a fraction of the more than 2 million federal employees. They will retain protections from firing.
What to watch: The rule is set to take effect in 30 days. Groups representing federal workers say they will file suit to block it.
- "Turning tens or maybe hundreds [of] thousands of these professionals into at-will employees doesn't make government more accountable," Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the groups planning a challenge, said in a statement.
- "It makes it more vulnerable to pressure, retaliation, and political interference, which is exactly the opposite of what the public is asking for right now."
