Frantic push to 'Trump-proof' government is just a 'speed bump' if MAGA returns to White House: report

President Joe Biden is taking steps to prevent Donald Trump from remaking the federal workforce should he recapture the White House, according to a report.

The president quickly canceled an executive order upon taking office that would have allowed Trump to fire tens of thousands of federal workers and install loyalists throughout the government, and the White House proposed a rule Friday that would make it more difficult to reimpose that order, reported the New York Times.

"The proposed new rule was unveiled by the White House’s Office of Personnel Management in a lengthy filing for the Federal Register," the newspaper reported. "It would allow workers to keep their existing job protections, such as a right to appeal any firing or reassignment, even if their positions were reclassified. It would also tighten the definition of what types of positions can be exempted from civil service job protections, limiting it to non-career political appointees who are expected to turn over when a presidency ends."

Trump's executive order, known as Schedule F, would have authorized his administration to transform many career federal employees, who tend to stay through multiple administrations, into political appointees who can be hired and fired at will, and was meant to weed out law enforcement and other officials the former president's advisers came to believe were blocking his agenda.

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Biden's regulatory proposal argues that protecting career civil service strengthens democracy by preserving institutional memory and expertise, and the administration believes it will complete its public comment and review process by early 2024.

“Our proposed regulation is strong and based in law and has a strong rationale,” said Rob Shriver, the deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management. “Anyone who wants to explore a change in policy would have work to do. They’d have to go through the same administrative rule-making process and make sure that their policy is grounded in the law.”

Trump and some of his GOP presidential rivals have promised to restore Schedule F, and the former Trump official who came up with the executive order said the new Biden rule would do little to stop it.

“The Biden administration can, if they want, make removing intransigent or poorly performing senior bureaucrats harder on themselves,” said James Sherk, who now works at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. “The next administration can just as easily rescind those restrictions. With regards to reissuing Schedule F, this proposed rule would be a speed bump, but nothing more.”

That's why many Democrats believe the issue needs a legislative solution, but a bill that would prevent the restoration of Schedule F was passed by the House but blocked in the Republican-led Senate.

“While the Biden administration’s forthcoming regulation is a good first step to protect the federal civil service from politicization, I’ve consistently said this demands a legislative fix,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA). “The Biden administration must make this a top legislative priority. That is the only thing that is going to stop Trump’s crusade to remake the civil service in his image.”