This Excel Spreadsheet Could Put Thousands Of Federal Employees In Trump’s Crosshairs | Talking Points Memo

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Thousands of civil servants are entering the holiday season fearful of a new Trump policy that could change their lives for the worse. 

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1347102
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Ok that’s scary. These last weeks will be the worst…

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It may not be as apocalyptic as the article suggests. First, Schedule F was accomplished by an Executive Order. The ability of a President to impact the civil service in this manner is questionable, but in any event EO’s can be undone as easily as they are done in the first place. President Biden can issue an Order nullifying Trump’s EO, and ordering that anyone reassigned from the competitive service to Schedule F is reassigned from whence they came. Second, there are rules against “burrowing,” the desire of political appointees to become members of the actual civil service through the stroke of a pen. It’s not clear at this point how successful the wholesale burrowing into Schedule F will be. But third, even if political appointees are moved into Schedule F, they have no protection from the ordinary rules against firing (that’s the purpose of Schedule F, right?), and they can be terminated fairly easily.

This is clearly ugly, and has indeed placed thousands of career civil servants at risk for their jobs right around Christmas. Still, though my crystal ball broke years ago, I don’t think it’s as bad in the long run as portrayed.

(NB, as an attorney, my practice primarily represents federal employees).

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We all know Trump has no fucking clue how machinery of the Federal government works, so who’s brain child is this? I want the name now damnit!

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That’s the way I read it as well. It looks as though this would amount to a maximum seven week furlough for these civil servants, but not much more.

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Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner.

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This Excel Spreadsheet Could Put Thousands Of Federal Employees In Trump’s Crosshairs

Or the exact opposite.

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Trump is leaving the Government soon.

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All good points and I appreciate the feedback. At very least, this puts a cloud of uncertainty over a lot of heads for the next few months, and we wanted to get that across.

Regarding your last point, do you think political appointees who “burrowed” via Schedule F, and then were dismissed by the Biden administration, could argue that they had been improperly terminated on PPP grounds? People I interviewed didn’t think those cases would have much of a shot, but suggested they would amount to a headache for the incoming administration.

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This was Trump’s plan for next year, fire everyone that he could and replace them with partisans who would do his bidding. Out goes Fauci, in goes Atlas, and so on. We’re really fortunate that Biden was elected, if 80% of the government became partisan appointees we’d no longer have a functional government.

Now, I think it’s likely that Trump will fire whoever has stood against him and Republican goals, plus whoever he can that will cause heartache for the Biden administration. I don’t think he’ll fire 80% of government employees (or whatever the percentage is in the end), simply because the rest of the Republican party will stop him…the political blowback from a Republican president sabotaging the entire government in the midst of a pandemic would be far too much for them. It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump does try to fire the key people who would help with the economic recovery and handling the pandemic, those are the two top things that Biden needs the government to do next year.

And, rehiring may not be as simple as another EO…Schedule F will allow Biden to fire whoever he wants, but hiring for a federal position is a process, and I’m not sure an EO can skip that to rehire all the people Trump fires. It may be easier for the Biden DoJ to accept and fold on wrongful termination lawsuits to get everyone back in place without the hiring process. It’s a huge can of worms though, which is of course now the intent.

Add it to the pile of things that history will use to declare Trump the worst president ever. Part of me hopes that he goes overboard and fires a million government workers before he leaves, or that he’s stupid enough to do it before the GA election…the consequences of this kind of thing really should wake people up.

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Thank God for the complete incompetence of Trump and his people. This entire experience has taught us (I hope) just how dangerous a group smart reactionaries could be. Think Ted Cruz.

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Definitely them. It has Jared’s sophomoric business thinking all over it, for sure.

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I think it’s adorable how they’re pretending that anything they do at this point matters much. Like kids playing dressup in mom and dad’s clothes, and talking in serious adult tones about what they imagine adult stuff to be.

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The GOP view of a “modern mixed economy” features socialism for corporates and a raw version of capitalism for workers. Thank heavens that a few Democrats in the Senate have chosen to do the obvious.

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Another example of tRump and his rethug minions sabotaging the coming Biden Administration.

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The ‘Deep State’ Trump Always Wanted

Wouldn’t this be more like Trump is giving Biden the Deep State Trump always fantasized about? So many of the people who were blocked from properly doing their jobs have already quit in protest, and the article itself notes that Trump won’t even have much time to fire and replace people down in the trenches

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George Herbert Mead called it Play Stage (before the child actually plays games and is in the emotionally mature state at which he/she can develop a self in the full sense of the term).

In the Play Stage a child may play “mommy” or “daddy”.

Or mailman

Or President

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I think this is fine. In his first week, Biden can use it to fire all the trumpanzees in the government. Then tell Congress to send him a clean bill that reverses it and makes the reversal permanent. Then tell the Republicans to vote for for that bill, or else he’ll spend the next four years using it to weed out Republicans, and that just before the next Republican president takes office, the EO will be reversed.

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"Christ, what an asshole." – Lucy

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Yeah, I may not be cynical enough, but it seems unlikely that the federal court doesn’t put a stay on the order or that it would burn it’s way through the court system by Jan 20. On the other hand, I’m cynical enough to think this crap is designed to grab headlines and distract from the really shady shit being undertaken right now.

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