The Biden administration is reportedly making moves to prevent President Donald Trump from dismissing deep state members if he reclaims the presidency in November.
The Office of Personnel Management, the main agency in charge of federal government employees, has issued new guidelines that stop career civil servants from being reassigned as political appointees who can be more easily removed from their roles.
This action is a response to Trump’s ‘Schedule F’ directive from 2020, which aimed to reclassify the positions of numerous federal employees, thereby simplifying the process of firing them.
In a statement from the White House on Thursday, President Biden announced the implementation of “the final rule to protect nonpartisan civil servants,” ensuring “protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people.”
“Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function. They provide Americans with life-saving and life-changing services and put opportunity within reach for millions. That’s why since taking office, I have worked to strengthen, empower, and rebuild our career workforce,” Biden continued.
“This is a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people,” he added.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman, Republican James Comer, claimed that the ruling would make federal employees unaccountable for their actions:
“OPM’s final rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s efforts to insulate the federal workforce from accountability. The federal workforce exists to serve the American people, yet many Americans have a deep and growing distrust of the federal bureaucracy,” Comer said.
“The Biden Administration’s rule will further undermine Americans’ confidence in their government since it allows poor performing federal workers and those who attempt to thwart the policies of a duly elected President to remain entrenched in the federal bureaucracy. We need more accountability for the unelected federal bureaucracy, not less,” he added.
This plan is ultimately intended to prevent Trump from dismissing the deep state actors who successfully undermined his first term in office.
If Trump returns to the White House and wishes to overturn the regulations, he would need to draft new rules through the Office of Personnel Management. This lengthy process involves gathering public feedback on any proposed changes and also exposes him to potential legal challenges.
Trump has consistently declared his intention to diminish the deep state’s influence during his second term. “We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States,” Trump stated in 2022. “The deep state must and will be brought to heel.”
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