The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) today issued a final rule confirming protections for career civil servants against the potential reemergence of a controversial Trump-era Federal workforce policy that aimed to create a new “Schedule F” for employees in policymaking roles that would make it easier to fire them.
The final rule — which will be officially published in the Federal Register on April 9 – clarifies and reinforces long-standing protections and merit system principles for thousands of Federal employees, making it more difficult for a future administration to reapproach a Schedule F-type arrangement.
In October 2020, former President Trump issued an executive order that created the Schedule F classification for Federal employees deemed to be in policy-making positions. The policy made these positions “at-will” and required agencies to inquire with the Federal Labor Relations Authority on whether “Schedule F” employees should be allowed to join collective bargaining units.
The policy drew immediate fire from numerous members of Congress including Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who introduced the Saving the Civil Service Act immediately following the former president’s EO to reverse the policy.
In the first week in office in 2021, President Biden canceled his predecessor’s executive order.
“Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function. They provide Americans with lifesaving and life-changing services and put opportunity within reach for millions,” President Biden said in a written response to the final rule issued by OPM today.
“This rule is a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people,” President Biden said.
“This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can carry out their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said in a written statement today.
The final rule issued today ensures that once a career civil servant earns protections they cannot be taken away by an involuntary move from the competitive service to the excepted service.
The rule also prevents terms like “confidential, policy determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” positions – terminology used to define Schedule F employees that would lack civil service protections — from being applied to career civil servants.
Additionally, the rule establishes an appeals process with the Merit Systems Protection Board for employees involuntarily moved from the competitive service to the excepted service. According to OPM, this change creates transparency and establishes an appeals process for Federal employees when any such movement is involuntary or characterized as stripping employees of their civil service protections.
Lawmakers including Rep. Connolly and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. – who sponsored Senate legislation against the Schedule F move – applauded the release of OPM’s final rule, stating that it reinforces the Biden administration’s commitment to protecting the merit-based civil service and preventing another Schedule F push.
“This rule is a vital and necessary step toward ensuring that the Federal workforce is always defined by expertise, not political fealty,” said Rep. Connolly in a written statement.
“Virginia is home to nearly 150,000 dedicated civil servants, who provide all kinds of essential services to Americans across the country – from keeping our National Parks open and protecting our national security to administering Social Security and Veterans benefits, and more,” Sen. Kaine said in a statement.
However, the two Virginia lawmakers still want Congress to take action aimed toward the same goal of today’s OPM rule by taking action on the Saving the Civil Service Act legislation that each of them introduced last year. Neither the House nor the Senate version of the bills have made it past the committee level thus far.
“The threat of a politicized civil service is too great, and too real, for this to be the end of our efforts,” Rep. Connolly said today.
“We must build on this important step with legislation that ensures no future president can take office and replace 50,000+ dedicated civil servants with an army of political loyalists,” he said. “I will continue to fight for passage of my bipartisan Saving the Civil Service Act, the only permanent solution to a problem that is not going away any time soon.”
Sen. Kaine also urged his fellow lawmakers to pass a permanent solution to “etch this progress into Federal statute,” saying “it’s in every American’s best interest that civil servants are hired through a merit-based system.”
