Use the sample letter below to send a message to your lawmakers urging them to cosponsor the Saving the Civil Service Act, H.R. 492/ S. 134. This bill would block the implementation of Schedule Policy/Career, formerly known as Schedule F, a statutory loophole that would bypass the system of rules ensuring civil servants are hired and fired based on merit. A final rule creating Schedule Policy/Career became effective March 9, and more than 8,000 federal positions were reclassified into the new excepted service schedule via an executive order issued June 3, which can be found here.
H.R. 492/ S. 134 would block the implementation of Schedule Policy/Career by preventing 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 and install a cap on the number of conversions to the frozen excepted service schedule (Schedule C), with the cap not to exceed more than one percent of the total number of employees, whichever is greater.
And to ensure transparency, the bill would require the consent of the employee and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before transfer to an excepted service can occur, requires OPM annual reporting, and gives Congress additional oversight.