New Trump civil-service reform rule nearer to going into effect

A new rule from the Trump administration classifying some career civil servants as “at-will” federal employees who will be easier to fire for underperforming or subversiveness is about to take another step closer to taking effect.

The 30-day comment period for the rule closes on May 23. Once the comment period closes, the Office of Personnel Management will then review the reactions to the proposal.  

According to former Department of Labor official Vincent Vernuccio, who is now president of the labor nonprofit Institute for the American Worker, OPM may amend the rule or issue it as it’s proposed, which could happen within the next few weeks or months.

“So, you’re talking about 50,000 federal employees—about 2% of the workforce who will become ‘at will’,” Mr. Vernuccio said.

“These are still career employees,” he said. “They still have protections. They’re not changing that. It’s just that if they are in a policy-influencing position, they’re ‘at will’, and they can be removed if they’re throwing sand in gears of policy.”

He added, “And if they simply don’t want to do their jobs and they don’t want to implement the policies that the people’s duly elected representatives have implemented, they can be removed.”

President Trump signed an executive order during his first day in office that described career government employees, working on policy matters as “schedule policy/career” employees, would “be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance.”

“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the president, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” Mr. Trump has said.

The rule, previously known as Schedule F, “empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.”

It also grants agencies expansive authority to reclassify eligible employees as schedule policy/career employees.

Excluded federal employees under this rule are those charged with enforcing the law, such as Border Patrol agents or wage and hour inspectors.

The proposal says that “decades of experience” have shown that the current rules “make it very difficult for agencies to hold employees accountable for their performance or conduct.”

“The processes are time-consuming and difficult, and removals are not infrequently subject to a protracted appeal process with an uncertain outcome,” the proposed rule says. “Surveys show few agency supervisors believe they could dismiss subordinates for serious misconduct or unacceptable performance.”

Several states, including Georgia, Kansas, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Florida, have already transitioned many public workers to at-will employment, granting agencies greater preference in hiring and firing, with bipartisan reforms reported to enhance accountability and flexibility without widespread political favoritism.