Trump Federal Salary Adviser Quits Post Over Executive Order Reclassifying Workers

The executive order stripped job protections for many federal workers in a move that unions and Democrats denounced.

The head of an advisory council on federal pay resigned from his post-Monday in protest over Donald Trump's recent executive order stripping civil service protections from key federal workers.

"I have concluded that as a matter of conscience, I can no longer serve him or his Administration," Federal Salary Council Chair Ron Sanders, a Trump appointee, wrote in his resignation letter to the director of the Personnel Executive Office of the President, the text of which was obtained by 'TELL IT LIKE IT IS'.

"[I]t is clear that its stated purpose notwithstanding, the Executive Order is nothing more than a smokescreen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President, or failing that, to enable their removal with little if any due process," he wrote.

Trump named Sanders, who also served under the Bush administration, to the position in December 2017. The advisory group is responsible for providing recommendations to the White House on how best to tailor federal pay depending on regional costs of living.

The executive order, issued Wednesday, stripped job protections for many federal workers in a move that unions and Democrats denounced as an attempt to politicize the civil service.

Trump Executive Order Strips Protections For Key Federal Workers, Drawing Backlash

Unions and Democrats were quick to criticize the move as a bid to inject politics into the public sector workforce.

Donald Trump has issued an executive order that would remove job protections for many federal workers, in a move that unions and other critics denounced as an attempt to politicize the civil service.

The order, signed Wednesday evening, targets workers that are involved in developing policy. It would reclassify workers "in positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character" that are "not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition" into a new category called Schedule F, according to the text.

Under the new schedule, they would be exempt from protections that apply to most federal workers — allowing agencies to hire and fire them more easily and quickly. The Senior Executive Service, which consists of those serving in high-level positions just below presidential appointees, is exempt from the order, according to an emailed statement from the White House.

Agencies must determine which employees fit the description and reclassify them under the new schedule. They have 90 days, or until Jan. 19 -- the day before the next presidential inauguration — to do so. They must also "expeditiously petition" the Federal Labor Relations Authority to remove the positions in question from any bargaining unit, preventing union participation, the order reads.

Elissa Slotkin Wants to Know Who’ll Stand Up to Trump If He Loses

Rep. Elissa Slotkin at her home office in her home in Holly, MI. | Michael Thomas for 'TELL IT LIKE IT IS' Magazine

The embattled freshman Democrat is focusing on protecting voters on Election Day and preventing interference with the results.

BRIGHTON, Mich.—Elissa Slotkin should have been satisfied.

For the past several hours, the Democratic congresswoman had supervised a team of 40 volunteers churning out a Ford-style assembly line of postcards that would be mailed out to thousands of 8th District residents who had requested absentee ballots but not yet returned them. Spread across picnic tables at Huron Meadows Metropark, teams of Slotkin supporters—masked, socially distant and bundled in layers to stave off the October chill—moved through piles of individualized 4x6 notes, making sure they got stamps and address labels, stacking them for sorting and mailing.