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

By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Rep. James Comer is decrying a new rule making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees as an attempt to “insulate the federal workforce from accountability.” 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. President Joe Biden called the rule a “step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference.” The Office of Personnel Management rule issued Thursday bars career civil servants from being reclassified and thus more easily dismissed. Trump issued a 2020 executive order seeking to allow for reclassifying thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees. Biden nullified that order. But Trump could seek to reinstate it.