President Biden plans to sign an order on Friday that will toss a plan that would have made it easier to fire top career civil servants and hire political appointees into high-ranking positions — a practice known as "burrowing."
Former President Donald Trump's plan to create the "Schedule F" category had been decried by federal unions as an attack on people he called the "deep state" when it was announced in October. The Biden White House was quick to cancel the classification, saying it "undermines the foundations of the civil service."
The order that Biden plans to sign also will lay the groundwork to require federal contractors to pay a $15-per-hour minimum wage and offer emergency paid leave — something Biden wants to accomplish within his first 100 days in office, his top economic adviser Brian Deese told reporters.
Biden also plans to revoke three other Trump executive orders that had rolled back certain collective bargaining protections, Deese said.
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