Project 2025 on the Federal Civil Service
People Magazine in its website article by Kylor Alvord dated July 11, 2024 states:
“One of the most concerning expansions of presidential authority would come if Trump found himself in a position to reinstate an executive order titled Schedule F, which is strongly endorsed by Project 2025. Trump introduced Schedule F at the end of his first term and it was quickly reversed by President Biden.
If Trump wins this time around, he could use Schedule F to transform the U.S. government into a MAGA machine by reclassifying thousands of nonpartisan federal employees into “at-will” workers who can be replaced via political appointment.
Project 2025 suggests that Schedule F be applied to discharge career civil service workers whom Trump deems “nonperforming,” or those who get in the way of the administration’s attempts at reform.
In practice, Schedule F could easily purge qualified subject experts from advisory positions at the first sign of disobedience and turn federal agencies into ultra-partisan arms of the Heritage Foundation’s mission.”
Project 2025 does not stop with the creation of Schedule F, but goes on to recommend reductions in alleged excess pay and benefits to federal employees, reduce protections for employees identified with performance issues, and severely restrict the role of labor unions within the federal workforce.
Read more below.
Project 2025 Statement on the Federal Civil Service
Deconstructing the Administrative State
One of the central tenants of the writers of Project 2025 is to: “2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.” (Ref. 1, page 3)
“The term Administrative State refers to the policymaking work done by the bureaucracies of all the federal government’s departments, agencies, and millions of employees. Under Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” That is, federal law is enacted only by elected legislators in both houses of Congress.” (Ref. 1, page 7)
“The Conservative Promise lays out how to use many of these tools including: how to fire supposedly “un-fireable” federal bureaucrats; how to shutter wasteful and corrupt bureaus and offices; how to muzzle woke propaganda at every level of government; how to restore the American people’s constitutional authority over the Administrative State; and how to save untold taxpayer dollars in the process.” (Ref. 1, page 9)
“When it comes to ensuring that freedom can flourish, nothing is more important than deconstructing the centralized administrative state. Political appointees who are answerable to the President and have decision-making authority in the executive branch are key to this essential task. The next Administration must not cede such authority to non-partisan “experts,” who pursue their own ends while engaging in groupthink, insulated from American voters. The following chapters detail how the next Administration can be responsive to the American people (not to entrenched “elites”); how it can take care that all the laws are “faithfully executed,” not merely those that the President desires to see executed; and how it can achieve results and not be stymied by an unelected bureaucracy.” (Ref. 1, page 21)
“The civil service was devised to replace the amateurism and presumed corruption of the old spoils system, wherein government jobs rewarded loyal partisans who might or might not have professional backgrounds. Although the system appeared to be sufficient for the nation’s first century, progressive intellectuals and activists demanded a more professionalized, scientific, and politically neutral Administration. Progressives designed a merit system to promote expertise and shield bureaucrats from partisan political pressure, but it soon began to insulate civil servants from accountability. The modern merit system increasingly made it almost impossible to fire all but the most incompetent civil servants. Complying with arcane rules regarding recruiting, rating, hiring, and firing simply replaced the goal of cultivating competence and expertise.” (Ref. 1, page 71)
Improving Poor Performance by Federal Employees
“In 2018, President Trump issued Executive Order 1383916 requiring agencies to reduce the time for employees to improve performance before corrective action could be taken; to initiate disciplinary actions against poorly performing employees more expeditiously; to reiterate that agencies are obligated to make employees improve; to reduce the time for employees to respond to allegations of poor performance; to mandate that agencies remind supervisors of expiring employee probationary periods; to prohibit agencies from entering into settlement agreements that modify an employee’s personnel record; and to reevaluate procedures for agencies to discipline supervisors who retaliate against whistleblowers. Unfortunately, the order was overturned by the Biden Administration, so it will need to be reintroduced in 2025.” (Ref. 1, page 73)
Ensuring Comparable Wages
“According to current law, federal workers are to be paid wages comparable to equivalent private-sector workers rather than compared to all private-sector employees. While the official studies claim that federal employees are underpaid relative to the private sector by 20 percent or more, a 2016 Heritage Foundation study found that federal employees received wages that were 22 percent higher than wages for similar private-sector workers; if the value of employee benefits was included, the total compensation premium for federal employees over their private-sector equivalents increased to between 30 percent and 40 percent. The American Enterprise Institute found a 14 percent pay premium and a 61 percent total compensation premium.” (Ref. 1, page 76)
“The obvious solution to these discrepancies is to move closer to a market model for federal pay and benefits. One need is for a neutral agency to oversee pay hiring decisions, especially for high-demand occupations. The OPM is independent of agency operations, so it can assess requirements more neutrally. For many years, with its Special Pay Rates program, the OPM evaluated claims that federal rates in an area were too low to attract competent employees and allowed agencies to offer higher pay when needed rather than increased rates for all. Ideally, the OPM should establish an initial pay schedule for every occupation and region, monitor turnover rates and applicant-to-position ratios, and adjust pay and recruitment on that basis. Most of this requires legislation, but the OPM should be an advocate for a true equality of benefits between the public and private sectors.” (Ref. 1, page 76)
Note: OPM is the Office of Personnel Management.
Schedule F Employees
“The desire to infiltrate political appointees improperly into the high career civil service has been widespread in every Administration, whether Democrat or Republican. Democratic Administrations, however, are typically more successful because they require the cooperation of careerists, who generally lean heavily to the Left. Such burrowing-in requires career job descriptions for new positions that closely mirror the functions of a political appointee; a special hiring authority that allows the bypassing of veterans’ preference as well as other preference categories; and the ability to frustrate career candidates from taking the desired position.” (Ref. 1, page 80)
“Frustrated with these activities by top career executives, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 1395724 to make career professionals in positions that are not normally subject to change as a result of a presidential transition but who discharge significant duties and exercise significant discretion in formulating and implementing executive branch policy and programs an exception to the competitive hiring rules and examinations for career positions under a new Schedule F. It ordered the Director of OPM and agency heads to set procedures to prepare lists of such confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating positions and prepare procedures to create exceptions from civil service rules when careerists hold such positions, from which they can relocate back to the regular civil service after such service. The order was subsequently reversed by President Biden at the demand of the civil service associations and unions. It should be reinstated, but SES responsibility should come first.” (Ref. 1, pages 80 – 81)
Note: SES is Senior Executive Service.
Executive Orders Issued by President Trump
“…President Trump issued three executive orders:
- Executive Order 13836, encouraging agencies to renegotiate all union collective bargaining agreements to ensure consistency with the law and respect for management rights;
- Executive Order 13837, encouraging agencies to prevent union representatives from using official time preparing or pursuing grievances or from engaging in other union activity on government time; and
- Executive Order 13839, encouraging agencies both to limit labor grievances on removals from service or on challenging performance appraisals and to prioritize performance over seniority when deciding who should be retained following reductions-in-force.
All were revoked by the Biden Administration and should be reinstated by the next Administration, to include the immediate appointment of the FLRA General Counsel and reactivation of the Impasses Panel.” (Ref. 1, pages 81 – 82)
Note: FLRA is Federal Labor Relations Authority
Federal Employees Should Do Less
“The specific deficiencies of the federal bureaucracy—size, levels of organization, inefficiency, expense, and lack of responsiveness to political leadership—are rooted in the progressive ideology that unelected experts can and should be trusted to promote the general welfare in just about every area of social life.” (Ref. 1, page 83)
“Modern progressive politics has simply given the national government more to do than the complex separation-of-powers Constitution allows. That progressive system has broken down in our time, and the only real solution is for the national government to do less: to decentralize and privatize as much as possible and then ensure that the remaining bureaucracy is managed effectively along the lines of the enduring principles set out in detail here.” (Ref. 1, page 83)
References:
- Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise, Project 2025, Presidential Transition Project;
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf