Keep Civil Service free from political interference
Civil Service job hiring in the federal government is based on ability. Employees are protected from being unjustly fired by, oh say, a vengeful president who doesn't like their politics or who demands loyalty to him not the Constitution. This allows the government to function in a normal way, with employment based on skills, not political patronage.
Trump, of course, wants to eliminate this important part of the federal government, which has been in place since the 1890s, so he can mass fire federal employees and replace them with his lackeys. He will attempt to undermine Civil Service under a bizarre plan known as Schedule F. It must be opposed.
In April, Biden issued new rules through OPM to make it harder for Civil Service employees to be fired without cause.
"The Biden administration announced a final rule [in April 2024] aimed to protect federal workers and make it harder to fire them, in an effort to prevent former President Trump from gutting the workforce if he’s reelected.
The rule, issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), clarifies that nonpartisan career civil servants with protected status can’t have that status taken away, and it prevents nonpartisan career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees."
It would take a long time to even try to implement it. Federal employees would be protected during the process.
"During any gap between a Schedule F executive order and its final implementation or rejection, federal employees retain their existing civil service protections.
" Courts would likely issue preliminary injunctions freezing any Schedule F conversions while litigation proceeds. This means agencies couldn’t start reclassifying positions or changing employee status until the courts make final decisions."
Republicans have tried things like this before, and they've usually failed. That doesn't mean they couldn't do damage to Civil Service now and of course we need to fight hard against Schedule F. However, no need no panic quite yet! Trump bellows a lot. His follow through when it comes to governance is generally muddled and often ineffective.
"Schedule F can’t happen on day one, and the firings on day two in reality."
"Yeah, I’ve watched for what, at least 35 years now of proposals to change the government, to make negative changes to our retirement system. And it’s really very seldom that those actually come to fruition."
This may be a huge, nasty, protracted fight. It's worth it. Civil Service as it exists now is an important part of our federal government and must be protected.