Proposed Rule Would Undermine Civil Service Protections And Enable Political Retaliation

Washington, DC — More than 110 organizations across sectors—from public health and labor to civil rights and good government—today submitted a coalition comment opposing the Trump-Vance administration’s proposed rule to revive and expand the controversial “Schedule F” policy through a rebranded effort called “Schedule Policy/Career.” This Democracy Forward- and Protect Democracy-led comment is one of more than 30,000 public comments that have been submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in response to the proposal, with the vast majority of comments filed to date opposed to the rulemaking.

The proposal would allow the executive branch to strip protections from certain federal workers, opening the door to widespread political purges.

In the letter, the coalition made clear that this proposal is an attack on the nonpartisan civil service and a threat to the public services people across the country count on every day.

“The President cannot dismantle the safeguards of the federal civil service – which works for all Americans – just to install loyalists,” said Rob Shriver, Managing Director of Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong initiative. “The American people deserve a government led by independence, fairness, and expertise, not fear and political retaliation. We urge this administration to abandon this reckless plan, respect the rule of law, and protect our federal employees.”

 “The American people deserve a professional civil service selected and retained based on their ability to deliver government services, not based on loyalty to a President or political favoritism.” said Ori Lev, Special Counsel at Protect Democracy “Converting large swaths of the career federal civil service to what are essentially political positions flies in the face of the system Congress established. We ask the administration to listen to our coalition’s concerns and not pursue this plan.”

The proposed rule would undermine the stability, institutional knowledge, and integrity that the career civil service provides, and disrupt the delivery of essential public services to the American people.

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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org. 

Protect Democracy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group working to prevent American democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government.