ACLJ Files Formal Public Comment Against Regulation That Would Further Empower and Insulate the Deep State From Any Accountability and Undermine the Policies of Future Presidents

Once again, the Biden Administration has been caught trying to undermine the will of the American people through binding Executive rulemaking. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently proposed revisions to civil service protection laws. These revisions will make it tremendously more difficult for future conservative Presidents to reassign or remove underperforming or insubordinate employees from the federal workforce through Schedule F.

Schedule F was a Trump-era policy that provided needed flexibility for the federal workforce and allowed for increased accountability for poor-performing and insubordinate employees. However, the Schedule F Executive Order was quickly rescinded by the Biden Administration in 2021. With Schedule F gone, the Biden Administration now aims to insulate unelected bureaucrats, meddle in the agenda of future Administrations, and defy the will of the American people who lawfully cast their vote for any future conservative President’s agenda. We submitted an official public comment in opposition to the OPM’s proposed rule in order to inform the Biden Administration that its revisions are unlawful, malicious, and unconscionable.

The OPM claims the revisions are intended to simply increase government efficiency. However, this is far from the truth, and the Biden Administration knows it. In a recent press release, the Biden Administration revealed the true motivation behind the OPM’s proposed revisions is to stop any potential revitalization of Schedule F in a future Administration. As we explained in our comment, it is unlawful for an agency to provide reasoning to the public for proposing a rule that is different from the agency’s actual motivation. Thus, the OPM’s reasoning contains unlawful discrepancies between its stated intent and actual motivation.

Furthermore, it is unconstitutional for the Biden Administration to commandeer a future President’s authority to oversee and remove subordinates by shielding inferior officers from presidential control. This attempt to bind the hands of Biden’s successors grossly violates Article II of the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent.

We also addressed the fact that the proposed revisions will result in increased government inefficiency and waste. By further restricting the movement and removal of poor-performing and insubordinate federal employees, workflow in the federal government will dramatically slow. Furthermore, funding lazy, incompetent, or insubordinate federal employees who fail to complete their work or seek to undermine the democratic process by failing to carry out the President’s agenda is an unacceptable waste of taxpayer dollars.

Eliminating Schedule F and hindering the ability of future Administrations to remove unelected bureaucrats would allow the Biden Administration to retain political activists within the federal workforce who can thwart any future elected conservative President’s policy agenda. In other words, the Biden Administration would be able to continue influencing policy even after the American people elect new leadership. These revisions will only further entrench the unaccountable fourth branch of government that seeks to intentionally disrupt, delay, and undermine the votes and enactment of the will of the American people with impunity.

The Biden Administration’s attempt to subvert our democratic processes runs afoul of our nation’s founding principles and cannot go unchecked. That is why the ACLJ remains committed to fighting back against the growth of the Deep State and its attempts to silence the will of the American people. Join us in this fight today. Together, we will not be kept silent.