I’m not sure what compelled Politico to blast this story about the Department of Agriculture ordering recently fired probationary federal workers be reinstated. It wasn’t a legal order. No district judges got involved this time. It was some overseer board, which has no authority to stop other layoffs. Moreover, even if rehired, the Trump administration still has the power to fire these people again or open them for reassignment. It’s not a win for the Left (via Politico) [emphasis mine]:
Thousands of fired workers at the Department of Agriculture must get their jobs back for at least the next month and a half, the chair of a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.
The ruling said the recent dismissals of more than 5,600 probationary employees may have violated federal laws and procedures for carrying out layoffs.
The decision from Cathy Harris, the chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, is a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to drastically and quickly shrink the federal bureaucracy. Though it applies only to the USDA, it could lay the groundwork for further rulings reinstating tens of thousands of other probationary workers whom the Trump administration has fired en masse across the government.
But it’s far from a final resolution of the legality of the mass terminations. The administration may have further options to place the reinstated workers on administrative leave or fire them again as part of a formal “reduction in force.”
The ruling blocks the USDA from implementing the firings for 45 days while the merit systems board continues to review the issue. During that time, fired workers must “be placed in the positions that they held prior to the probationary terminations,” Harris wrote.
The merit systems board is a three-member independent agency in the executive branch that adjudicates federal employees’ complaints over terminations or suspensions.
Did you read that? The USDA decision is a “blow” to the Trump administration, but not because it doesn’t answer the legality of the firings, it’s only a 45-day moratorium on USDA layoffs. These very people could end up being fired again, as there are options aplenty for what the Trump team can do in this matter.
It’s a “blow,” but not for the Trump administration. Just merely delaying the inevitable. Government jobs will be cut. Wasteful spending will be exposed, and the Department of Government Efficiency won’t be dissolved anytime soon.
Talk about anti-climactic. And Politico, your sugar daddy, USAID, got drowned in the bathtub.
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