Trump issues sweeping order stripping job protections from tens of thousands of federal employees who are involved in policy decisions

[Mary Wilson]

By LISA REIN AND ERIC YODER | The Washington Post | Published: October 22, 2020

President Donald Trump has fired his biggest broadside yet this week against a federal bureaucracy he has moved to remake with an executive order that would remove job security from an estimated tens of thousands of civil servants.

The directive, issued late Wednesday, strips long-held civil service protections from employees whose work involves policymaking, allowing them to be dismissed with little cause or recourse, much like the political appointees who come and go with each administration.

Federal scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts and many others in senior roles would lose rights to due process and in some cases, union representation, at agencies across the government. The White House declined to say how many jobs would be swept into a class of employees with fewer civil service rights, but civil service experts and union leaders estimated anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in a workforce of 2.1 million.
...

https://www.stripes.com/trump-issues...oyees-1.649559

 

[Mary Wilson]

Order to Reclassify Civil Service Posts Will Compromise Responses to Public Health Threats

10/26/2020

• Barbara Alexander, M.D., FIDSA – President, Infectious Diseases Society of America
• Rajesh T. Gandhi, M.D., FIDSA – Chair, HIV Medicine Association
• Jason M. Pogue, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP – President, Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists
• Mary Hayden, M.D., FIDSA, FSHEA – President-elect, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
• Kristina A. Bryant, M.D., FPIDS – President, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society

The executive order signed last week that strips protections from our nation’s civil service workforce comes at a time when the critical role of career staff in guiding federal responses to public health needs could not be more clear.

... A threat to the political autonomy of our scientific and public health workforce would be deeply concerning in any circumstance. Coming at this time, the dangers posed by the directive are particularly alarming. We rely on the judgement of civil service experts to lead responses against the pandemic, inform the public, drive research, update guidance and review data supporting the use and distribution of vaccines and treatments to address the impacts of COVID-19.

... We urge the White House to rescind this misguided directive. If the directive is not rescinded, we encourage Congress to use its authorities to maintain the integrity of the civil service workforce.

https://www.idsociety.org/news--pub...ompromise-responses-to-public-health-threats/