Shrinking accountability? Biden makes it harder to fire federal employees

The Biden administration recently implemented a new rule that would make it more difficult to fire federal employees.

On Thursday, the Office of Personnel Management issued a rule that nonpartisan career civil servants with protected status will not be able to have that status taken away. 

The rule also doesn't allow civil servants to be labeled as "political appointees," according to The Hill.

This would make it more difficult for presumptive GOP candidate Donald Trump to make good on his promise to radically change the structure of the U.S. government by shrinking the workforce, CBS News reports. 

Biden referred to the rule as a  “step toward combating corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people."

This rule is meant to counter a Trump rule known as "Schedule F" which would have taken away the protection of civil servants and made sure political reasons were not the reason for them being hired.

Conservatives sharply criticized, the rule change, saying it would make federal bureaucracy less accountable to the American people.

“OPM’s final rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s efforts to insulate the federal workforce from accountability," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a statement. "The federal workforce exists to serve the American people, yet many Americans have a deep and growing distrust of the federal bureaucracy.

”The Biden Administration’s rule will further undermine Americans’ confidence in their government since it allows poor performing federal workers and those who attempt to thwart the policies of a duly elected President to remain entrenched in the federal bureaucracy. We need more accountability for the unelected federal bureaucracy, not less,” he added.