(New American) The Deep State is refusing to go down without a fight.
The establishment is alarmed by Donald Trump’s promise to drastically reform the federal government if he returns to the White House. As seen in an article at NBC News, the media is depicting Trump’s plan as a way of gutting America’s civil service, whereas Trump claims he wants to defang the unelected bureaucracy that is unaccountable to elected officials and to the people.
The outlet notes that “With less than a year left until next fall’s election, President Joe Biden’s administration, lawmakers and advocacy groups are already trying to stop the return of a short-lived executive order dubbed ‘Schedule F.’”
That executive order, signed during Trump’s final weeks in the White House, made it easier for a president to fire bureaucrats, removing job protections from career officials in policy roles.
Opponents of Schedule F are employing two main strategies to keep the Deep State alive:
The first involves regulation, adopted in September, related to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The new regulation increases job security for civil servants and restricts the positions that can have those protections taken away.
Trump’s opponents also want to tackle the issue on the legislative front with a bill championed by Representatives Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and Senator Tim Kaine, (D-Va.). The bill would require that any plan to create new employee designations in the federal workforce first obtain approval from Congress.
Advocacy groups, many of them so-called pro-democracy organizations, are also playing a role by putting out public messaging and raising awareness.
“I’ve been sounding the alarm bell on this since Trump was president,” Connolly told NBC News. “And I don’t think there’s sufficient appreciation of what a threat this poses.”
The outlet further reported:
