Support growing for legislative solution to Trump effort to politicize federal civil service

Bipartisan opposition is growing to President Trump’s recently-announced executive order politicizing the federal civil service.

Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08) announced Friday that he is a co-sponsor of the Saving the Civil Service Act, legislation that would reverse the order, which would create a “schedule F” for federal employees who, if so classified, would be stripped of basic worker protections.

“Everyone should be outraged by Trump’s radical attack on the federal workforce, which seeks to take America’s civil service back 137 years to a time when political loyalty was deemed more important than merit or skill,” said Beyer, who represents the largest number of federal employees of any member of Congress.

Federal Salary Council Chair Ronald Sanders resigned in protest over the President’s “schedule F” order earlier this week, writing that “I have concluded that as a matter of conscience, I can no longer serve him or his administration” after the announcement of an order “that seeks …to replace apolitical expertise with political obeisance.”

The National Treasury Employees Union subsequently filed suit against the administration over the order.

“The conscientious resignation of Federal Salary Council Chair Ronald Sanders, a Trump appointee and self-described ‘life-long Republican… named after Ronald Reagan,’ should make it clear to everyone just how bad the order is,” Beyer said. “Federal employees swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president, notwithstanding the demands for partisan subservience that Donald Trump has made on career officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

The Saving the Civil Service Act was introduced this week by Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.