A new guideline from the Biden administration‘s proposal would further isolate unaccountable federal officials from being accountable to President Joe Biden or his chosen successors.  ,
The successful “grandfathering” of national employees into their present type of work is the clout of the new law from the Office of Personnel Management, making it more difficult for a upcoming president to issue an executive order similar to the one that then-President Donald Trump signed in October 2020 to stifle the bureaucracy.  ,
According to a former top OPM official, a law listed in the Federal Register, like the one from Thursday, might be harder to reverse than an professional order because it would need to be reversed under the Administrative Procedures Act’s measures.
Robert Moffit, who worked for OPM under the Reagan administration and is currently a senior research fellow for health and welfare legislation at The Heritage Foundation, said,” If such a law were allowed to stand, it would connect a potential government’s hands, at least temporarily, in carrying out his duties to create and implement his policies. ( The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet. )  ,
According to Moffit, the president is unable to operate the enormous federal government from his White House office in the West Wing.  ,
Some former federal employees who are protected by the civil service do n’t, he continued.  ,
The president must not only be able to hire political figures who will carry out his electoral mandate, but also have to remove career personnel who attempt to obstruct that mandate, according to Moffit. Therefore, any criticism of a president’s ability to carry out the policies he was elected to is fundamentally anti-democratic; it also targets the American people who elected him.
The proposed rule from the OPM’s proposed rule, among other things, would clarify that” an employee’s status and civil service protections cannot be taken away from the competitive service to the excepted service, or from one excepted service schedule to another.”
” Once a career civil servant earns protections, that employee retains them unless waived voluntarily”, the rule says.
In October 2020, just before the election he lost to Biden, Trump signed an executive order to create a new category of federal employee called Schedule F. Personnel in this category are in confidential, policy- determining, policymaking, or policy- advocating positions that remain on the payroll when a presidential transition occurs.  ,
For career employees in crucial positions that affect policy, the executive order from Trump, who faced opposition from within the federal bureaucracy, gave them more authority and flexibility.  ,
Biden resigned from the Trump order when he took office in January 2021. Because the new rule is published in the Federal Register rather than an executive order, a future president would have to be able to reverse it. To do it, one would have to go through a lengthy administrative procedure.  ,  ,
Career federal employees enjoy civil service protection, making it nearly impossible to fire them, by contrast, political employees serve at the pleasure of an elected president.  ,
Federal employee unions donate between 70 % and 90 % to Democrat candidates, indicating that career federal bureaucrats are overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning. Some former employees have been accused of preventing the implementation of Republican presidents ‘ policies by Republicans.  ,
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which establishes a plan for the next conservative presidential administration, calls for reinstatement of Trump’s Schedule F as part of a larger effort to impose a new order on the federal government.  ,
This has been a long- standing policy goal for Heritage, Moffit noted.  ,
One of the main arguments made by former Heritage President Ed Feulner was that Republicans ‘ attempts to stifle Democratic President Clinton and reduce his political appointees, according to Moffit.  ,  ,
” Political appointees can formulate the details of the president’s policies and see to it that they are implemented all the way down the chain through departments, agencies, subagencies, and bureaus of the federal government” . ,  ,
The final rule was announced by Biden’s Office of Personnel Management on Thursday, claiming it had received 4, 000 comments. It was later announced that it would be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.  ,
In a public statement, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said,” This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can perform their duties based on their expertise rather than political loyalty.” ” The Biden- Harris administration is deeply committed to the federal workforce, as these professionals are vital to our national security, our health, our economic prosperity, and much more” . ,  ,  ,
According to the OPM press release, the new rule also would clarify that the phrase” confidential, policy- determining, policymaking, or policy- advocating” refers to positions that are noncareer, political appointments.  ,
The rule also would establish procedural requirements for moving positions from” career” to “political”, and set up an appeals process for employees.  ,
According to Moffit,” Career officials are unquestionably important in the implementation of presidential policy.” ” Those of us who served in presidential administrations all have war stories, however, about how politically hostile civil servants, through various means, including intentional slow- walking or foot- dragging, can delay, thwart, or undermine the president’s policies”.
” A career civil servant who does not or will not carry out the policy of any president, regardless of party affiliation, should have the honor and the decency to resign”, he said. ” They should not enjoy regulatory protection”.
