New rule strengthening federal job protections could counter Trump promises to remake the government
President Joe Biden says a new rule making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees is a “step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference." Advocates hope the rule will head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the federal workforce along ideological lines if the Republican wins back the White House. The Office of Personnel Management rule will bar career civil servants from being reclassified as at-will workers who are more easily dismissed. Trump in 2020 issued an executive order that sought to allow for reclassifying tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees. The Democrat Biden nullified it. But Trump could seek to reinstate it.