Trump administration to make it easier to fire 50,000 federal workers
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: The Trump administration is planning to make it easier to discipline and potentially to fire career officials in senior government positions, officials told the Wall Street Journal, as part of a broad effort to overhaul federal agencies.
The context: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) which oversees the federal workforce is due to issue a final rule on Thursday to create a category of worker for high-ranking career officials whose work focuses on executing the administration’s policies.
Workers in the new category would not be subject to decades-old rules that set a high threshold for firing federal employees. The move could impact around 50,000 federal workers.
OPM officials told the WSJ the rule is aimed in part at disciplining federal workers who stand in the way of Trump’s policies and the new category applies to senior positions that are policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating in nature.
Officials also said that the administration will not discipline employees based on their political affiliation and that the rule will not be used as a justification for mass layoffs.
“People can’t be conscientious objectors in the workforce in a way where it interferes with their ability to carry out their mission,” OPM director Scott Kupor told the WSJ. “When conscientious objection becomes sabotage or trying to find ways to thwart the objectives of the administration—that is not allowed.”
The source: Wall Street Journal
