Trump allies, opponents prepare to battle over plans for at-will workforce
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 5 Replies
Horrible idea:
Before President-elect Donald Trump can move “aggressively” to kill workforce protections for thousands of federal employees, as he has promised, he could face a vigorous court challenge.
He’ll be ready.
Get the latest election news and results
But so will his opponents.
Trump will return to the White House better prepared than during his first term, and with the backing of a Republican-controlled Congress and a generally friendly Supreme Court majority. Potentially, critics of his workforce policies could have a tough fight in all three branches of government.
A key element of Trump’s preparation on federal employment issues is the work done during his four years away from Washington by James Sherk, the self-described shepherd of Schedule F, a contentious, but short-lived, federal employee workforce category. Biden revoked Schedule F when he took office, and later his administration adopted a regulation designed to thwart a reissued Schedule F.
A year before Trump’s reelection, Sherk, Trump’s first-term domestic policy special assistant, outlined a defense of the policy that Trump announced during his first term.
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It could upend the traditional nonpartisan nature of the civil service.
Schedule F would make certain feds “at-will” employees, meaning they could be fired without the due process protections that allow appeals of adverse employment actions against government employees. In addition, the policy would allow agencies to fill those positions with political loyalists by skipping competitive hiring rules for career civil servants in positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating character.”
It’s important to note that while due process protects individual federal employees from arbitrary terminations, the public is the main beneficiary. The current rules protect everyone from partisan politics unduly infecting government services. Likewise, competitive hiring prevents a government workforce from being overpopulated with political pawns. While presidents and their political appointees set policies for agencies, career civil servants are charged with implementing those policies without political favoritism. Making many of them at-will employees threatens the nonpolitical nature of the federal workforce and the public services they provide.
While Schedule F opponents are marshaling their arguments, they are aware that Trump has powerful allies on his side. With Republicans controlling Capitol Hill next year, MAGA legislators could seek to make Schedule F law, if that seemed a faster route to implementation. That would require a Senate supermajority of 60 votes, however, meaning some Democrats would have to agree. Even if opponents won early judicial battles against the policy, they eventually could face a Supreme Court dominated by Republican-nominated justices, who are more inclined to favor Trump’s schemes.
Instead, it’s more likely that Trump reinstates the plan through another executive action, which is what the president has promised. During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to “immediately re-issue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the President’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively.”
Sherk outlined his Schedule F defense last year in writings from his perch as the Center for American Freedom director at the Trump-allied America First Policy Institute. Then, he targeted the Biden administration’s regulation aimed at preventing Schedule F from returning. Sherk, who declined interview requests, claimed, oddly, in a September 2023 issue brief that President Joe Biden “is trying to protect the bureaucracy from accountability to the president.”
Despite the Biden administration’s roadblock, Sherk isn’t worried.
“What is done through executive action can be undone through executive action,” he wrote. Once Trump takes office in January, “Schedule F could be reissued with full force and effect. The Biden administration’s regulations can slow down — but not block — Schedule F.”
Sherk, an economist by training, contends any delay would be only a few months and “if Schedule F were reissued today, opponents would have virtually no legal basis to challenge it.”
Federal employment law attorneys, however, disagree on his timing and his legal analysis.
Even if Trump reissues his directive on Day One, it will still take more time than Sherk predicts for the necessary rules and regulations to be implemented, predicted James Eisenmann. He is a former executive director and general counsel of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that deals with allegations of unfair personnel actions against federal employees. Plus, he added, “they have to have a good reason for reversing the Biden regs.” Eisenmann now represents feds as a partner with Alden Law Group.
Sherk said appellate court rulings indicate positions with a “‘confidential, policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating character’ cannot be reviewed in court.” That’s a key phrase in the order. But for legal purposes it means “Schedule F is extremely, extremely broad,” Eisenmann said, perhaps too broad for legal muster.
The employees Schedule F defined as policymakers covers those whose jobs include “viewing, circulating, or otherwise working with proposed regulations.” That could cover “even administrative staff,” said Nick Bednar, a University of Minnesota associate law professor and political scientist who researches federal bureaucracies. “I question whether Congress intended the phrase to extend to employees in the competitive service that help superiors draft policy or simply view and circulate policy as part of their jobs.”
By expanding “the phrase to cover positions that merely ‘view’ policy documents,” he said Trump’s policy “would sweep positions held by non-appointees, such as scientists, administrative assistants, and IT professionals” into employment categories with easier termination policies. “This broadened definition goes beyond Congress's intent and exceeds the plain meaning of ‘policy-determining.’”
Sherk’s insistence that the order “retained protections against politically motivated” dismissals isn’t convincing. “The mere threat that the Trump Administration might use Schedule F as cover to fire these employees has already injected unfair political influence into the civil service,” Bednar said.
Feds have reason to worry about Schedule F mission creep.
In a long, November 2023 letter to the Office of Personnel Management opposing the Biden regs, Sherk said “Schedule F would cover a maximum of 50,000 positions — about 2 percent of the federal workforce.” His issue brief, however, said “Schedule F would apply to between 2 and 4 percent of the overall federal workforce,” pushing the number closer to 100,000.
The number of employees affected, however, could be much larger than the number of positions.
A Government Accountability Office report said the policy-heavy Office of Management and Budget under Trump sought to place 136 types of jobs in Schedule F. But that would hit 415 employees, 68 percent, of OMB’s workforce, according to the auditors’ analysis.
Further, the America First Agenda for the next administration portends a much broader application of the policy. It declares: “Return the federal civil service to at-will employment — the original vision for a professional merit service.”
That’s one reason Randy Erwin, National Federation of Federal Employees president, vigorously opposes Schedule F, even if his members would not be immediately affected by it.
“They’re making it sound like it’s limited,” he told me recently. “The problem is once it is established, there is a very strong concern that they’ll continue to expand and expand what federal employees Schedule F applies to.”
Before President-elect Donald Trump can move “aggressively” to kill workforce protections for thousands of federal employees, as he has promised, he could face a vigorous court challenge.
He’ll be ready.
Get the latest election news and resultsBut so will his opponents.
Trump will return to the White House better prepared than during his first term, and with the backing of a Republican-controlled Congress and a generally friendly Supreme Court majority. Potentially, critics of his workforce policies could have a tough fight in all three branches of government.
A key element of Trump’s preparation on federal employment issues is the work done during his four years away from Washington by James Sherk, the self-described shepherd of Schedule F, a contentious, but short-lived, federal employee workforce category. Biden revoked Schedule F when he took office, and later his administration adopted a regulation designed to thwart a reissued Schedule F.
A year before Trump’s reelection, Sherk, Trump’s first-term domestic policy special assistant, outlined a defense of the policy that Trump announced during his first term.
🌸
Follow D.C. region
It could upend the traditional nonpartisan nature of the civil service.
Schedule F would make certain feds “at-will” employees, meaning they could be fired without the due process protections that allow appeals of adverse employment actions against government employees. In addition, the policy would allow agencies to fill those positions with political loyalists by skipping competitive hiring rules for career civil servants in positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating character.”
It’s important to note that while due process protects individual federal employees from arbitrary terminations, the public is the main beneficiary. The current rules protect everyone from partisan politics unduly infecting government services. Likewise, competitive hiring prevents a government workforce from being overpopulated with political pawns. While presidents and their political appointees set policies for agencies, career civil servants are charged with implementing those policies without political favoritism. Making many of them at-will employees threatens the nonpolitical nature of the federal workforce and the public services they provide.
While Schedule F opponents are marshaling their arguments, they are aware that Trump has powerful allies on his side. With Republicans controlling Capitol Hill next year, MAGA legislators could seek to make Schedule F law, if that seemed a faster route to implementation. That would require a Senate supermajority of 60 votes, however, meaning some Democrats would have to agree. Even if opponents won early judicial battles against the policy, they eventually could face a Supreme Court dominated by Republican-nominated justices, who are more inclined to favor Trump’s schemes.
Instead, it’s more likely that Trump reinstates the plan through another executive action, which is what the president has promised. During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to “immediately re-issue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the President’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively.”
Sherk outlined his Schedule F defense last year in writings from his perch as the Center for American Freedom director at the Trump-allied America First Policy Institute. Then, he targeted the Biden administration’s regulation aimed at preventing Schedule F from returning. Sherk, who declined interview requests, claimed, oddly, in a September 2023 issue brief that President Joe Biden “is trying to protect the bureaucracy from accountability to the president.”
Despite the Biden administration’s roadblock, Sherk isn’t worried.
“What is done through executive action can be undone through executive action,” he wrote. Once Trump takes office in January, “Schedule F could be reissued with full force and effect. The Biden administration’s regulations can slow down — but not block — Schedule F.”
Sherk, an economist by training, contends any delay would be only a few months and “if Schedule F were reissued today, opponents would have virtually no legal basis to challenge it.”
Federal employment law attorneys, however, disagree on his timing and his legal analysis.
Even if Trump reissues his directive on Day One, it will still take more time than Sherk predicts for the necessary rules and regulations to be implemented, predicted James Eisenmann. He is a former executive director and general counsel of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that deals with allegations of unfair personnel actions against federal employees. Plus, he added, “they have to have a good reason for reversing the Biden regs.” Eisenmann now represents feds as a partner with Alden Law Group.
Sherk said appellate court rulings indicate positions with a “‘confidential, policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating character’ cannot be reviewed in court.” That’s a key phrase in the order. But for legal purposes it means “Schedule F is extremely, extremely broad,” Eisenmann said, perhaps too broad for legal muster.
The employees Schedule F defined as policymakers covers those whose jobs include “viewing, circulating, or otherwise working with proposed regulations.” That could cover “even administrative staff,” said Nick Bednar, a University of Minnesota associate law professor and political scientist who researches federal bureaucracies. “I question whether Congress intended the phrase to extend to employees in the competitive service that help superiors draft policy or simply view and circulate policy as part of their jobs.”
By expanding “the phrase to cover positions that merely ‘view’ policy documents,” he said Trump’s policy “would sweep positions held by non-appointees, such as scientists, administrative assistants, and IT professionals” into employment categories with easier termination policies. “This broadened definition goes beyond Congress's intent and exceeds the plain meaning of ‘policy-determining.’”
Sherk’s insistence that the order “retained protections against politically motivated” dismissals isn’t convincing. “The mere threat that the Trump Administration might use Schedule F as cover to fire these employees has already injected unfair political influence into the civil service,” Bednar said.
Feds have reason to worry about Schedule F mission creep.
In a long, November 2023 letter to the Office of Personnel Management opposing the Biden regs, Sherk said “Schedule F would cover a maximum of 50,000 positions — about 2 percent of the federal workforce.” His issue brief, however, said “Schedule F would apply to between 2 and 4 percent of the overall federal workforce,” pushing the number closer to 100,000.
The number of employees affected, however, could be much larger than the number of positions.
A Government Accountability Office report said the policy-heavy Office of Management and Budget under Trump sought to place 136 types of jobs in Schedule F. But that would hit 415 employees, 68 percent, of OMB’s workforce, according to the auditors’ analysis.
Further, the America First Agenda for the next administration portends a much broader application of the policy. It declares: “Return the federal civil service to at-will employment — the original vision for a professional merit service.”
That’s one reason Randy Erwin, National Federation of Federal Employees president, vigorously opposes Schedule F, even if his members would not be immediately affected by it.
“They’re making it sound like it’s limited,” he told me recently. “The problem is once it is established, there is a very strong concern that they’ll continue to expand and expand what federal employees Schedule F applies to.”
She’s a real go-getter!
Lily Phillips Ready to Take on 1K Dudes in 24 Hours, Learned From 'Mistakes'
Lily Phillips' tearful reaction had nothing to do with regret over sleeping with 100 men in 24 hours ... telling TMZ she was merely exhausted after the sexcapade.
www.tmz.com
AP: UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty concedes that the U.S. health system "does not work as well as it should”
- By Morrison71
- Off Topic
- 11 Replies
UnitedHealthcare CEO killed in New York tried to improve 'patchwork' system, exec says
The leader of UnitedHealth Group wrote that the health insurance executive gunned down on a Manhattan sidewalk last week cared about consumers and was working to make the system better.
apnews.com
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed last week, was described as kind and brilliant by UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty in a guest essay published in The New York Times.
Witty said he understood people's frustration but described Thompson as part of the solution.
Thompson never forgot growing up in his family's farmhouse in Iowa and focused on improving the experiences of consumers.
"His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. B.T., as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother. He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care," Witty wrote.
Witty said his company shares some responsibility for lack of understanding of coverage decisions.
"We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people's frustrations with it. No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It's a patchwork built over decades," Witty wrote. "Our mission is to help make it work better."
New Story Small-Ball Works... Until It Doesn't
- By Adam Jacobi
- The Press Box
- 6 Replies
Hindsight's obviously 20/20, but I don't think it takes an optometrist to see that Iowa was playing against some big-ass dudes tonight. Dembele was working. And if fatigue wasn't a factor — Fran didn't even wait for me to finish my postgame question to say it wasn't — then lineup construction was the fault in a game where Iowa was outscored by 10 in second-chance points and lost by 9.
FREE:
iowa.rivals.com
FREE:
No. 3 ISU 89, Iowa 80: Small-Ball Works... Until It Doesn't
Iowa was outscored 20-10 on second-chance points in a nine-point loss to Iowa State.
CBS All American Team
- By jonesy5960
- Iowa Football
- 21 Replies
Higgins first team and KJ second team.
www.cbssports.com
2024 CBS Sports All-America team: Big Ten edges SEC in selections, Travis Hunter picks up three honors
There were three unanimous first-team selections from our CBS Sports and 247Sports experts
www.cbssports.com
Amazon & Meta will both contribute $1 Million to President Trump’s inauguration fund
- By Franisdaman
- Off Topic
- 26 Replies
Time to boycott Amazon, Whole Foods, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads & the Washington Post! 
The free story from the AP:
apnews.com
The free story from the AP:
Amazon to contribute $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Meta is also donating $1M
Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. A company spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the e-commerce giant will also stream Trump's inauguration on its Prime Video service, a separate in-kind donation worth another $1 million.
apnews.com
New Story Small-Ball Works... Until It Doesn't
- By Adam Jacobi
- Iowa Men's Basketball
- 5 Replies
No. 3 ISU 89, Iowa 80: Small-Ball Works... Until It Doesn't
Iowa was outscored 20-10 on second-chance points in a nine-point loss to Iowa State.
Project 2025, it’s going to happen
Remember how you all said it isn’t going to happen? I’ve taken a new philosophy in life. IDGAF about strangers anymore. If you aren’t a friend or a family member I don’t give 2 shits about you or what happens to you. Apparently most of this country is selfish is anyway. Time to start doing the same. I hope it all works out but **** it whatever. I’m an upper class middle aged white man, with a wife that can no longer have children. I’ll be fine.
www.rollingstone.com
Republicans Celebrate by Admitting They Can't Wait for Project 2025
Donald Trump's supporters celebrated their plans to implement Project 2025 after months claiming they had nothing to do with the former president.
www.rollingstone.com
I’m so stoked for it to all burn
It’s hilarious how everything coming to light is what people warned of. Most HBOTrs don’t need to worry since we are white male billionaires. But all you dirt poor magas….
Biden Commutes Sentences Of Cartel Leaders, Crack Dealers And ‘Notorious’ Fraudsters In Massive Clemency Push
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Drug traffickers, crack dealers, cartel leaders and fraudsters appear on President Joe Biden’s list of nearly 1,500 individuals who he granted clemency Thursday, court records reveal.
As part of his record-setting clemency grant, Biden announced Thursday he would commute sentences for individuals “who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.” The list of commutations released by the White House includes several high-profile criminals.
One individual, Francesk Shkambi, was initially sentenced in July 2014 to 27 years in prison for leading a criminal organization to “smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the United States from Albania,” according to court records.
“Shkambi also negotiated with a foreign source to traffic cocaine from Mexico to Europe,” the records show. “The jury found Shkambi responsible for trafficking 85 kilograms of cocaine, 4 kilograms of heroin, approximately 122 pounds of marijuana, and 4,000 pills of Ecstasy.”
Shkambi was later set to be released in 2029, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Jose Valdez, whose sentence Biden commuted, “coordinated the distribution of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for a drug-trafficking organization based in El Paso, Texas, from March of 2015 through July of 2016,” per court records.
Valdez also “recruited numerous individuals to deliver narcotics to cities throughout the United States.” His scheduled release date was previously set for November 2026, according to the BOP.
David Morrow, who was convicted of “conspiracy to distribute over 50 grams of crack cocaine” and for “maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing crack cocaine,” also had his sentence commuted by Biden. His expected release date was set for November 2031, per the BOP.
Two of the “most notorious fraudsters” in the Chicago-area — former Dixon, Illinois Comptroller Rita Crundwell and former Sentinel Management Group, Inc. CEO Eric Bloom — also made the list, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Crundwell, who was sentenced in 2013 to nearly 20 years in prison, stole $53.7 million from Dixon over the course of a decade in what many called the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Bloom was convicted for defrauding “hundreds of victims” of over $665 million.
“Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer,” Biden’s Thursday announcement stated. “The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 8: President Joe Biden delivers remarks as he hosts the 2024 Kennedy Center honorees in the East Room of the White House on December 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
Biden also commuted Daniel Monsanto Lopez’s sentence, whose request for release to home confinement a court denied in 2020, noting he was “the organizer and leader of a sophisticated, years-long narcotics smuggling and distribution conspiracy that trafficked at least 20 kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to the Bronx.”
“While Mr. Monsanto Lopez’s motion is long on statistics — he emphasizes in support of his motion that COVID-19 has more strongly impacted Hispanic males such as himself — it is short on specifics, and he has failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling reasons for his release,” the court held. Lopez’s release date was set for Dec. 25, 2024, according to the BOP.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As part of his record-setting clemency grant, Biden announced Thursday he would commute sentences for individuals “who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.” The list of commutations released by the White House includes several high-profile criminals.
One individual, Francesk Shkambi, was initially sentenced in July 2014 to 27 years in prison for leading a criminal organization to “smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the United States from Albania,” according to court records.
“Shkambi also negotiated with a foreign source to traffic cocaine from Mexico to Europe,” the records show. “The jury found Shkambi responsible for trafficking 85 kilograms of cocaine, 4 kilograms of heroin, approximately 122 pounds of marijuana, and 4,000 pills of Ecstasy.”
Shkambi was later set to be released in 2029, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Jose Valdez, whose sentence Biden commuted, “coordinated the distribution of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for a drug-trafficking organization based in El Paso, Texas, from March of 2015 through July of 2016,” per court records.
Valdez also “recruited numerous individuals to deliver narcotics to cities throughout the United States.” His scheduled release date was previously set for November 2026, according to the BOP.
David Morrow, who was convicted of “conspiracy to distribute over 50 grams of crack cocaine” and for “maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing crack cocaine,” also had his sentence commuted by Biden. His expected release date was set for November 2031, per the BOP.
Two of the “most notorious fraudsters” in the Chicago-area — former Dixon, Illinois Comptroller Rita Crundwell and former Sentinel Management Group, Inc. CEO Eric Bloom — also made the list, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Crundwell, who was sentenced in 2013 to nearly 20 years in prison, stole $53.7 million from Dixon over the course of a decade in what many called the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Bloom was convicted for defrauding “hundreds of victims” of over $665 million.
“Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer,” Biden’s Thursday announcement stated. “The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 8: President Joe Biden delivers remarks as he hosts the 2024 Kennedy Center honorees in the East Room of the White House on December 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
Biden also commuted Daniel Monsanto Lopez’s sentence, whose request for release to home confinement a court denied in 2020, noting he was “the organizer and leader of a sophisticated, years-long narcotics smuggling and distribution conspiracy that trafficked at least 20 kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to the Bronx.”
“While Mr. Monsanto Lopez’s motion is long on statistics — he emphasizes in support of his motion that COVID-19 has more strongly impacted Hispanic males such as himself — it is short on specifics, and he has failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling reasons for his release,” the court held. Lopez’s release date was set for Dec. 25, 2024, according to the BOP.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.