New rule strengthening federal job protections could counter Trump promises to remake the government

By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s chief human resources agency has issued a new rule making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees. Advocates hope the rule will head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the federal workforce along ideological lines if he wins back the White House in November. The Office of Personnel Management regulations will bar career civil servants from being reclassified as at-will workers who are more easily dismissed. It comes in response to “Schedule F,” an executive order Trump issued in 2020 that sought to allow for reclassifying tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees. President Joe Biden nullified Schedule F. But Trump could seek to reinstate it.