The rules governing discipline and removal procedures for federal employees are on track for a major overhaul.

A slew of proposed regulations and executive orders from the Trump administration — along with recent court decisions and upcoming hearings — are reshaping how agencies handle adverse action processes for the federal workforce.

On the whole, Trump administration officials say the changes aim to boost employee accountability across government, while rooting out poor performers and anyone unwilling to carry out lawful presidential orders.

“In order to affect the policy priorities of the administration, we need to have people willing to and capable of carrying out those directives,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said in June, speaking about the new Schedule Policy/Career classification.

But others in the federal community say the administration’s personnel policy revisions would undermine merit system principles, employees’ due process and other critical aspects of federal workforce integrity. Dan Meyer, a national security lawyer at Tully Rinckey PLLC, sees a clear pattern across the recent changes.

“All these decisions are of a whole cloth: Restoration of a strong executive branch, reversing the congressionally forced reforms following Watergate and the abuses by the FBI during the Civil Rights Movement and the war in Southeast Asia,” Meyer told Federal News Network. “The presidency was weakened in the last third of the 20th century; now the...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiswFBVV95cUxPTF9rUWdwVzNSZjBrZFJlYzhM...