IFPTE Letter to House and Senate to Include Language in NDAA to Protect Merit Principles in Civil Service and Block Executive Branch from Creating a Patronage System
This week, IFPTE continued to push Congress to pass legislation that protects "the federal civil service so that it cannot be undermined by a presidential administration that seeks to replace nonpartisan career federal employees...with political operatives who are hired and fired at the whim of the administration." This is urgent and high priority for IFPTE, for federal unions, and for organizations that support good governance, democracy and accountability, and quality public services.
The letter was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed, and House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith and requests inclusion of such language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). IFPTE's message to the Democratic Party leadership in Congress was also shared widely in the House and Senate. IFPTE is also working with federal employee unions to build support among Republicans for including this provision in must-pass legislation that passes before the end of the year.
The letter focuses on language that revises Section 5705 of the House-passed NDAA, which incorporates the bipartisan "Preventing a Patronage System Act," H.R. 302, sponsored by Rep. Chair Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), into the NDAA. The revised language "would create sensible limits on a presidential administration’s ability to transfer to positions from one excepted service to another excepted service, limits on the number of positions transferred from the competitive service to the excepted service in a four-year presidential term, and a requirement for written approval from any employee in the competitive or excepted service before they are moved to a new excepted service schedule position."
The letter reminds lawmakers that, "We know full-well the threat of an executive branch taking the extraordinary step of converting vast parts of the merit-based federal workforce to a patronage system is real," and describes the extraordinary attack on the civil service that the previous administration spearheaded when it issued an executive order creating a new “Schedule F” excepted service classification. While the Biden Administration acted quickly to revoke Schedule F soon after President Biden was sworn in, the letter notes, "advocates of Schedule F have voiced their enthusiasm for the broadest application of Schedule F possible, sharing with the media that the goal is to 'Fire everyone you’re allowed to fire…And [then] fire a few people you’re not supposed to, so that they have to sue you and you send the message'"
IFPTE's message to Congress on the urgent need for a legislative fix to this problem has made clear that, "The threat of any future administration implementing Schedule F or any similar effort to inject political patronage, cronyism, and corruption into the federal government would not only be felt by federal employees — it would harm working people, our economy, and the legitimacy and functionality of our democracy."