Wasington Post via MSN: “President Donald Trump is accelerating efforts to transform the nonpartisan, merit-based federal workforce into one that demands and rewards loyalty to the president, according to civil servants, public service experts and employment attorneys. The ongoing shift would ditch decades-old rules that were intended to ensure that federal hiring, retention and promotion decisions are based largely on employees’ skills and experience, say the workers, experts and attorneys. The House-passed budget proposal under consideration in the Senate would give new federal workers an ultimatum to accept “at-will” status — meaning they could be more easily fired — or pay a higher retirement contribution. The administration also unveiled a plan to require job applicants to write short essays describing how they plan to advance Trump’s priorities. And Trump has revived his previous efforts to reclassify thousands of federal employees and blur the line between political appointees and career professionals. “These employees could be replaced with partisan loyalists — people who will obey any order, regardless of the Constitution,” said Joe Spielberger, senior policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight. “This elevates loyalty to an individual president over the oath of office and the best interests of the public.” Many civil servants now fear the changes will further upend a workforce that has historically prized competence and neutrality. In interviews with 13 federal employees across seven agencies — almost all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation — workers described the transformation as a direct assault on the foundational principles of public service. They said the administration’s moves appear designed to hollow out a government staffed by experts and replace it with one filled by political allies. The Trump administration argues that the government had stopped hiring based on merit, pointing to agencies that released demographic recruitment and workforce data and carried out diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies…”