FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Matt Dorsey
(202) 550-6987
Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a union representing 110,000 professional career federal employees, sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act (S. 399/ H.R. 1002) before the 118th Congress ends its work on January 3rd, 2025. The legislation would explicitly prohibit harmful federal hiring practices like “Schedule F,” a hiring authority first introduced under the Trump administration, but immediately rescinded by President Biden.
Schedule F is a new, corruption-friendly policy that allows a sitting president to 1) hire an unlimited number of unvetted, permanent political appointees throughout the Executive Branch and 2) force the conversion of professional career employees into political appointees, where they will work solely under political loyalists.
Under the law, because a professional career federal employee cannot supervise, discipline, or evaluate the performance of political appointees, the loyalists hired under Schedule F will have full reign to carry out personal or political agendas secretly with ease. Professional career employees who are forced into Schedule F will lose their legal protection to report or act against fraud, waste, abuse, and unethical or illegal activity.
“The fallout from such measures would result in political patronage, rampant corruption, and unconstitutional actions that harm every American,” the NFFE letter reads. “The balance of power between the three branches of government—carefully designed to prevent tyranny—would be upended when Congress’s laws regulating federal employment and oversight are effectively nullified. Without proper oversight from within the Executive Branch and Congress, agencies and programs will become inefficient, and services to taxpayers will become ineffective.”
“Every Member of Congress who does not support this legislation signals tacit approval for corruption and political overreach,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “This is not hyperbole. Schedule F threatens to erase over 150 years of progress in building a fair, accountable, and merit-based Executive Branch. The 118th Congress must act decisively by passing the Saving the Civil Service Act to preserve the integrity of our democracy by preventing unrestrained political corruption. Let the 118th not be remembered as the Congress that allowed American democracy to falter.”