United States legislator s are rushing to rescind President Donald Trump’s controversial Executive Order that threatens to remove Public Service protections from large segments of the Federal workforce.
The 40 Members of Congress, all Democrats, have introduced legislation that would block the Administration from using Federal funds to implement the Executive Order’s provisions.
The White House is seeking to create a new ‘Schedule F’ job classification for “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions”.
The directive instructs Agencies to identify which positions qualify as policy-making across the Federal Government and transfer existing career workers into the new job classification, stripping them of their Public Service protections and making them vulnerable to dismissal.
It instructs Agencies to submit preliminary reviews of their workforces to identify which jobs should move to Schedule F by 19 January, one day before President-elect Jo Biden’s inauguration.
However, officials from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) say that if an Agency submits its plan early, it would review and sign off on it before that date.
Now a group of Democratic Senators led by Gary Peters of Michigan (pictured) have introduced legislation to rescind the order, retroactive to 21 October, the day that Mr Trump signed the Executive Order.
“This recent Executive Order will not only strip protections away from hard-working, dedicated Civil Servants, but it also recklessly creates chaos and dysfunction during the ongoing pandemic and Presidential transition,” Senator Peters said.
“Our country is facing a number of serious challenges that must be quickly and effectively tackled, from safeguarding our national security to addressing the Coronavirus pandemic — and non-partisan Federal employees carry out this critical work,” he said.
Washington, 20 November 2020
