Trump Nixes Patent Office, Weather Service, NASA Unions (1)

President Donald Trump nullified more government unions Thursday, expanding a March executive order that has sharply limited federal-sector collective bargaining.

The president issued a new directive ending collective bargaining agreements at NASA, the International Trade Administration, the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, the National Weather Service, the US Agency for Global Media, hydropower facilities under the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.

Trump classified the agencies as having national security interests, exempting them from federal union laws.

The order comes in the wake of a US Supreme Court victory, which allowed Trump to eliminatecollective bargaining at some agencies while a legal challenge to the president’s action proceeds. It represents another advancement of Trump’s campaign to exert control over the federal workforce, by weakening the career civil service, eliminating barriers between presidential politics and day-to-day governing, and disbanding federal unions.

“Certain procedural requirements in Federal labor-management relations can create delays in agency operations,” the White House wrote in a fact sheetbroadly criticizing government unions. “These delays can impact the ability of agencies with national security responsibilities to implement policies swiftly and fulfill their critical missions.”

The concept of years-long collective bargaining agreements can limit agencies’ ability to “modify policies promptly,” the sheet states.

“The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security,” it says.

Several agencies have already canceled union contracts under Trump’s original executive order. This week, Health and Human Services workers were notified that their collective bargaining agreement had been canceled, joining Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Trump’s sweeping use of national security exemptions where they have not historically been relevant is sure to invite more scrutiny—and litigation—from Trump’s opponents, who argue it’s a pretense to erode checks on presidential power.