President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that would make it easier to fire thousands of federal workers.
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The move was aimed at enhancing “accountability in these policy-influencing positions,” according to the order.
It’s a part of Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government and address career federal employees who he believes work to hinder his policies. It’s also an area that Trump expressed interest in reforming during his first term but was unable to act upon.
The Trump administration previously said the order could affect as many as 50,000 federal workers, but on Wednesday it scaled down estimates to about 8,000 employees. Trump could, however, decide to add more positions in the future.
What Does the Executive Order Do?
The executive order reclassifies about 8,000 federal government positions into at-will employees.
Most of those affected are at the highest pay grade for civil service, known as GS-15.
“These roles include agency positions such as directors, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisors and policy analysts, employees with significant involvement in drafting regulations and guidance, public affairs and legislative affairs leaders and employees with significant involvement in determining who gets federal grants,” according to a White House fact sheet about the executive order.
The executive order argues that Trump relies on these employees to “help him faithfully execute the laws and advance the priorities for which he was elected by the American people.”
“Officials in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, and policy-advocating roles (policy-influencing positions) play particularly important roles in helping him fulfill this constitutional duty,” the executive order states. “Therefore, ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected president.”
What Is an At-Will Employee?
Generally, employers can terminate at-will employees at any time for any reason as long as it doesn’t violate the law.
The reclassification into at-will employment means the group of federal workers will be easier to fire. In the past, the employees have had due process rights that include written notice ahead of adverse actions, access to materials supporting the move, the assistance of a lawyer and the ability to appeal to an independent board. Those protections, which Trump has stripped away, were seen as a way to safeguard the workforce from inappropriate political interference.
“Roles listed on schedule policy/career are at-will positions,” the fact sheet states. “Agencies can remove employees in schedule policy/career for poor performance, misconduct, corruption or subversion of presidential directives without lengthy procedural hurdles that often prevent accountability, consistent with the ability to remove appointees responsible for implementing the president’s agenda.”
The fact sheet also states that “removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation.”
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