BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER

Before leaving office……..On October 21, 2020,
Donald Trump issued an executive order (E.O. 13957)
“Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service.”
Executive Order on Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service – The White House (archives.gov)

The Astonishing Implications of Schedule F  ⋆ Brownstone Institute

“You’re fired” …..was a slogan that made Trump TV famous.
With this order, Schedule F government employees could be fired by the President.
The order further demanded a thorough employment review of every agency….. throughout the government.

Each head of an executive agency (as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code,
but excluding the Government Accountability Office) shall conduct, within 90 days of the date of this order,
a preliminary review of agency positions covered by subchapter II of chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code,
and shall conduct a complete review of such positions within 210 days of the date of this order.

The Washington Post in an editorial expressed absolute shock and alarm at the implications:

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Schedule F’ executive order is an attempt to bend the civil service to his will – The Washington Post

The directive from the White House, issued late Wednesday, sounds technical:
creating a new “Schedule F” within the “excepted service” of the federal government for employees in policymaking roles,
and directing agencies to determine who qualifies.
Its implications, however, are profound and alarming.

It gives those in power the authority to fire more or less at will as many as tens of thousands of workers
currently in the competitive civil service, from managers to lawyers to economists to, yes, scientists.

This week’s order is a major salvo in the president’s onslaught against
the cadre of dedicated civil servants whom he calls the “deep state”
— and who are really the greatest strength of the U.S. government.

Source https://brownstone.org/author/jeffrey-tucker/

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and ten books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He writes a daily column on economics at The Epoch Times, and speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of Citizens Journal

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