Trump team's new rule could make firing government scientists easier

"On 5 February, the US Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) finalized a rule that it proposed last year to create a new class of government employee called 'Policy/Career'. This class would reassign career civil servants who influence government policy - a potentially broad category - and strip them of the job protections that they usually have under US law. (Career civil servants are hired through a competitive, merit-based system and hold their jobs for years, unlike political appointees who typically remain for one administration.)"

"and strip them of the job protections that they usually have under US law. According to the new rule, Policy/Career employees could be fired for "subverting Presidential directives". Agencies in the US Executive Branch including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - the main federal funders of science in the country - have already assembled lists of workers to convert to the new category."

"NSF staff members who spoke to Nature are apprehensive about the rule, which is set to take effect in early March. "We're expecting it to be unpleasant," says one programme officer who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. Opponents of the policy say they are planning to sue. The government is "rebranding career public servants as 'policy' employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies", Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Workers (AFGE) in Washington DC,"

The US Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule creating a 'Policy/Career' class that would reassign career civil servants who influence government policy and remove their usual job protections. The rule allows firing Policy/Career employees for "subverting Presidential directives" and recommends considering positions that award research grants at agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Agencies have assembled lists to convert staff and the OPM estimates about 50,000 federal employees will be reclassified. Some agency staff express apprehension and fear of reprisal, and unions and opponents plan legal challenges, arguing the policy silences whistleblowers and enables political replacements.

Read at Nature