An estimated 50,000 career government officials will be reclassified as “will” employees bound by new civil servant regulations.
President Donald Trump announced on April 18 that he plans to implement a one-day executive order aimed at increasing accountability among the country’s federal workforce.
“By moving forward, career government employees working on policy matters will be categorized as ‘scheduling policy/career’ and held to the highest standards of action and performance,” he said.
“If these government workers refuse to advance the president’s policy interests or engage in corrupt behaviour, they should no longer do their jobs.
“This is common sense and the federal government can ultimately “run like a business.” We must eradicate corruption and implement accountability to federal workers! ”
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“The rules aim to enhance accountability for career federal employees while streamlining the removal of fraud and poor performance.”
The proposed rules implement one of Trump’s day one executive orders. This will correct the order from the end of his first semester. This refers to the schedule policy/career as “Schedule F.” That earlier order was revoked by President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to regain Schedule F through his 2024 campaign.
The new performance standards will be set by new civil servant regulations released by OPM on April 18th.
The office confirmed that the new schedule and policy career roles remain nonpartisan and merit-based.
Public feedback regarding the proposal will be received between April 23rd and May 23rd.
The White House estimated that 50,000 government officials, about 2% of all federal workers, will move into this new category once the final rules are issued. Low-level employees, such as individual border patrol agents, are generally exempt from this rule.
“Such employees must be bound by the highest standards of conduct. Americans deserve both effective and accountable government,” he said.
According to the White House fact sheet on the rules, the government’s Accountability Bureau’s report found it could take six months to a year to remove poor performers from their positions.
“Only two-fifths of federal managers are confident that they can remove employees who commit serious misconduct,” the report said. “Only a quarter believes that employees can be removed due to poor performance as a key part of the job.”
Examples of issues where Fester was allowed due to difficulties in dismissal included an audit of a federal deposit insurance company that discovered widespread sexual misconduct among male supervisors against female subordinates, and a career Justice Department attorney who refused to support the lawsuit.
“Recent polls have asked senior federal employees in Washington, D.C. what they would do if the president gave them a legitimate order that takes into account bad policies,” the fact sheet said. “Multiple said they would ignore the order and do what they thought best.”
This development comes as the Trump administration has been working to reduce the federal workforce for the past four months, with tens of thousands taking legal action to keep them in positions.
Opposition
Before Trump took office, objections to the new rules were already underway among Democrats.
As of April 18th, no votes have been made for either of them.
Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.
