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EXCERPT:
The White House on Wednesday moved to strip civil service protections from about 8,000 federal workers, including many working at public health agencies.
The executive order effectively transforms these positions—which include “epidemiologist”, “health scientist” and “toxicologist” jobs—into “at-will” positions—meaning they can be readily fired without cause. The job category, initially called Schedule F and now called Schedule Policy/Career, strips these federal workers of protections meant to prevent political interference.
According to the order, “policy-influencing positions” must be transferred to the new status, thereby “ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.” The move reflects President Donald Trump’s long-standing complaint of a “deep state” of federal workers resistant to his policies, and he has for years called for the schedule change in order to fire civil servants he views as impediments to his policies.