Trump administration to make it easier to fire 50,000 federal workers

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is planning to make it easier to discipline—and potentially fire—career officials in senior positions across the government, a move that would affect roughly 50,000 federal workers. The U.S.

Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, is set to issue a final rule on Thursday that creates a category of worker for high-ranking career employees whose work focuses on executing the administration’s policies. Workers who fall into that category would no longer be subject to rules that for decades have set a high bar for firing federal employees. While political appointees at agencies are considered at-will employees who serve at the discretion of the president, career employees have long enjoyed strong job protections, including the ability to appeal firings, suspensions or disciplinary action to an independent board.

Workers that fall under the new category wouldn’t be able to appeal to the board. The change is part of a far-reaching effort by the administration to overhaul federal agencies and reduce the size of the government’s workforce. Senior political appointees, spurred on by President Trump’s longstanding contention that a “deep state" is undermining his agenda, have shut down government programs, fired thousands of employees and offered others voluntary separation agreements.

Office of Personnel Management officials said the rule is aimed in part at disciplining federal workers who stand in the way of Trump’s policies. OPM said the new category applies to senior positions that are policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating in nature. “People can’t be conscientious objectors in the workforce in a way where it