President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 3 converting nearly 8,000 federal workers who are in “senior policy-influencing positions” into at-will employees, making it easier for the administration to fire them.
About 97% of the reclassified positions are among the highest-ranking career positions, such as directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers and policy analysts who are involved in drafting regulations and guidance and determining who gets federal grants.
What the Order Changes
During an Oval Office event to sign the executive order, Trump invited James Sherk of the Domestic Policy Council, the mastermind behind the change, to share his thoughts.
Sherk said federal employee removal procedures are often lengthy.
“If you have employees who are trying to undermine the wishes of American people by pushing of their own agenda or just incompetent in what they’re doing, agencies have a longstanding typical time getting rid of them. And that’s a particular problem,” Sherk said.
“What this does is basically treats those employees like private sector workers. They can be hired on the basis of merit… but if they’re messing up, then they can be removed real quickly rather than taking a year longer,” he added.
A fact sheet issued by the White House put the idea behind the change in starker terms: Because firing employees is burdensome, “agencies seldom remove career employees” for “subversion of Presidential priorities.”
Smaller Than Originally Projected
The number of employees affected by the conversion is smaller than what the Office of Personnel Management had previously estimated. In February, OPM had estimated that about 2% of the federal workforce, or about 50,000 employees, would be reclassified to Schedule Policy/Career.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the federal government has reduced the workforce by more than 300,000 civil service jobs. The cuts were driven by layoffs, buyouts and deferred resignation offers in concert with the Department of Government Efficiency.
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