Senior Democrats in the United States House of Representatives are requesting a “full accounting” of moves by the White House to ‘burrow’ political appointees into the Public Service.
The lawmakers, all Chairs of the House’s various committees and sub-committees, also want to know more about the workings of Schedule F, a new category of Federal employee made up of positions involving policy work that aren’t subject to Public Service protections or collective bargaining rights.
Agencies are facing a 19 January deadline to submit an initial inventory of positions to be converted to Schedule F to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
The Office of Management and Budget has indicated that 88 per cent of its positions are eligible for conversion into Schedule F jobs.
There are concerns that the move, which stems from an Executive Order made by US President, Donald Trump in October, could accelerate non-competitive hiring into the new schedule as the Trump Administration is on its way out.
This could leave the incoming Administration of Joe Biden with a bureaucracy tainted by former political appointees from the last Presidency.
A lawyer who specialises in Federal employee issues, James Eisenmann (pictured) said normally the OPM reviews and approves the conversion of political appointees into Public Service positions.
“However, Schedule F blurs the lines demarcating the apolitical Civil Service from pure political appointees,” Mr Eisenmann said.
“What [Schedule F is] potentially doing is really creating this kind of political appointment without calling it a political appointment,” he said.
The lawmakers have sent letters to all US Agencies requesting details about any individuals whose positions have been converted to Schedule F, and whether anyone had been sacked after their positions were converted.
Congressional Democrats have also been pursuing action to block the implementation of the Executive Order, including attempts to use the appropriations process to block the use of funds for the order’s implementation.
Washington, 3 December 2020
