On November 17, Cissy Jackson, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, submitted a public comment on behalf of CAP for the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) solicitation for public comments on its proposed rule entitled “Upholding Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles.”
CAP’s official comment is now available in the public record here.
The proposed amendments to Title 5, Chapter I, Subchapter B, in the Code of Federal Regulations are both timely and essential to protect federal civil service employees and to prevent the government workforce from becoming subject to a patronage system that rewards loyalty over expertise. The federal civil service is the backbone of the federal government. Americans depend on qualified, experienced federal workers to perform their duties regardless of their personal political allegiances or policy preferences; the merit system principles codified in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) serve to ensure an efficient, competent, nonpartisan federal workforce. Executive order 13957 (rescinded) posed a direct threat to the foundational principles of the civil service system codified in the CSRA, and this rule is an appropriate action by the OPM to clarify and strengthen those principles and to hinder future efforts to undermine them. Accordingly, CAP encourages the OPM to expeditiously finalize this proposal.
The author would like to thank Ben Olinsky, Alan Yu, and our colleagues at Democracy Forward for their contributions to this comment.