Burrowing is a slang term used in the United States to describe the practice in which political appointees are given civil service protection. Except for judges, political appointees are subject to losing their jobs when a new administration takes power. On the other hand, career government officials are protected from losing their jobs when a new administration takes over. Burrowing is therefore the practice of reassigning people who do not have civil service protection into jobs that have civil service protection.
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Burrowing (politics) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA