Trump Removes Job Protections for up to 50,000 Federal Workers

The Trump administration has made it easier for federal agencies to fire career employees on a shorter timeline.

Approximately 50,000 federal workers in nonpartisan “policy-influencing positions” will no longer qualify for appeals or adverse action procedures, the Office of Personnel Management announced Thursday.

The new finalized rule means agency officials will no longer be required to collect substantial evidence of those employees’ poor performances, notify them and provide them a chance to improve before demoting or removing them from their jobs. Until now, only political appointments were subject to at-will employment.

“This will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives,” the 255-page rule states.

“Both the President and OPM believe that additional leeway is needed to allow agencies to swiftly remove employees holding policy-influencing positions — even at the cost of removing some procedural protections against removal that these employees would otherwise enjoy,” it continues.

While it is not clear exactly which federal workers will now be subject to loosened job protections, the office estimates that the rule will affect about 2% of the federal workforce. The administration dismissed concerns made during the comment period that this rule could impact even more than 50,000 workers and that OPM’s approximation was “misleading.”

“Having conducted initial review of agency recommendations for Schedule Policy/Career conversions, OPM can state that its initial estimate of 50,000 positions was a reasonable approximation of potential conversions,” the rule states.

This policy change is the latest in a string of moves President Donald Trump has made to radically change how the federal government works and who works in it.

In Trump’s first year back in office, his administration has laid off approximately 300,000 federal workers.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, called the rule a “direct assault” on the civil service.

“When people see turmoil and controversy in Washington, they don’t ask for more politics in government, they ask for competence and professionalism,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “OPM is doing the opposite. They’re rebranding career public servants as ‘policy’ employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies without any neutral, independent protections against politicization and arbitrary abuse of power.”

In the announcement, OPM addressed concerns that the rule will facilitate further reductions in force or the introduction of a patronage system, writing that such applications of the rule would be “inappropriate” and inconsistent with Trump’s executive order requiring accountability in the federal government.

The new rule will “strengthen employee accountability and the democratic responsiveness of American Government,” OPM said in the announcement, claiming that agency supervisors have encountered “great difficulty” firing employees for poor performance or misconduct.