Schedule F a Danger to America's Civil Service
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- Published: September 16, 2024
On the eve of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on the federal workforce, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO, joined the Federal Workers Alliance in raising concerns about the return of Schedule F. The hearing, titled “Ensuring a Trustworthy Government: Examining the National Security Risks of Replacing Nonpartisan Civil Servants with Political Appointees,” is on September 17.
Schedule F stems from a presidential executive order (no longer in effect) in which tens of thousands of federal employees who serve in roles believed to have some authority over policy would be reassigned as Schedule F employees. These employees would lose their workplace and union protections upon reassignment, making them functionally at-will employees and therefore far easier to fire. Further, Schedule F defies merit principles and instead would require political loyalty to a president.
The Federal Workers Alliance is a coalition of labor unions representing over 550,000 federal and postal employees. PASS represents 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense.
“To be clear,” the unions wrote, “Schedule F—or any similar authority that replicates its elements—serves only to undermine and corrupt the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government and must be legally prohibited from ever being implemented.”
The letter went on to highlight the most dangerous aspects of Schedule F and the threat to American democracy:
- The power granted by Schedule F to install unlimited political appointees without term limits within the Executive Branch is a recipe for abuse. It is designed to turn appointees into covert operatives loyal to a specific individual or ideology, undermining the nonpartisan nature of the civil service.
- The ability to reclassify hundreds of thousands of professional, nonpartisan federal employees into a particular employment category that strips them of essential protections under the Merit Systems Principles (MSP) and shields them from safeguards against Prohibited Personnel Practices (PPP). These protections ensure that the Executive Branch remains honest, transparent, accountable, effective, and fair.
The alliance pointed out to committee members that Schedule F is a critical component of the Heritage Foundation’s radical Project 2025 to dismantle key parts of the federal government.
The unions are urging the Senate to enact safeguards for the nonpartisan civil service “dedicated to upholding the Constitution and serving the American public.” Indeed, federal employees take an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, just as every American president has. The Federal Workers Alliance is calling on the Senate to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act (S. 399) which is currently pending in that chamber. The bill would prevent the return of Schedule F and block any position in the federal competitive service, created after September 30, 2020, from being reclassified outside of merit system principles without the express consent of Congress.
“Our nation’s career civil servants—federal employees who serve the public impartially, regardless of political affiliation—are crucial to American democracy,” the unions wrote. “These civil servants must remain nonpartisan experts, accountable not only to the President but also to the Constitution, the law, the American people, and Congress.”