Washington, DC — The Trump plan to strip civil service protections from tens of thousands of federal employees would shield cronyism and misconduct at the highest levels of government, according to public comments filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Trump’s plan would convert all civil servants occupying “policy-influencing positions” to “at-will” employees equivalent to political appointees.

The official justification offered in the Federal Register to justify creating a new job classification, called Schedule P/C, or Policy/Career, as opposed to the current GS or General Schedule, is flimsy, vague, and heavily biased. For example, the proposed rule references the terms “corrupt” or “corruption” by current civil servants some 18 times as a justification for the need for Schedule P/C, yet it cites only one investigation of wide misconduct, but not corruption, at the FDIC as support for the rule. Similarly, the proposal also claims broad “insubordination” during Trump’s first term, but it offers no concrete examples of actual refusals by civil servants to follow lawful orders.

In contrast, the impacts of Trump’s Schedule P/C plan are quite clear, including –

• Firing Whistleblowers. Schedule P/C employees who report wrongdoing will have no legal protection even if terminated precisely because they have identified official wrongdoing. Whistleblowing for cases of waste, fraud, and abuse will vastly decline.
• Insulating Illegality. Schedule P/C employees will have no right to refuse illegal orders without running the risk of immediate termination. During Trump’s tenure, federal courts have found several dozen times where he has issued illegal or unconstitutional orders and demanded obedience to them; and
• Squandering Investments. Summary dismissals and premature retirements of thousands of senior employees will forfeit major outlays in training specialists for whom there are no ready replacements.

“President Trump’s Schedule P/C embraces the corruption and cronyism of the 19^th Century spoils system of government,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Under this plan, government jobs will go to people whose sole qualification is their loyalty to the President.”

Currently, the President appoints approximately 4,000 noncareer or political employees to direct his agenda’s implementation. While the precise number of staff who would be reclassified to the vague Schedule P/C is unknown, estimates suggest that approximately 50,000 employees could be affected.

“Administrative law judges, park superintendents, computer specialists, grant managers, scientists, and law enforcement officers are just some of the civil servants who will be subject to this oppressive new rule” added Whitehouse, noting PEER is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Schedule P/C as violating the Civil Service Reform Act and other laws.

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Read the PEER comments

See Trump Schedule P/C proposal

Look at pending lawsuit challenging the earlier Schedule F