John,
Congress outlawed the spoils system – where many federal jobs were given to political cronies – nearly 140 years ago and replaced it with the apolitical civil service we have today. President Trump issued a new executive order that is trying to return us to the spoils system, and we need to fight back.
This new executive order is aimed at stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of due process, legal rights and protections, and undermining decades of laws and policies designed to protect career civil servants from being hired or fired for political reasons.
It creates a new excepted service classification called Schedule F that will apply to any career federal employee whose job is in any way connected to federal policy. This new Schedule F classification puts these workers in “policy-making” positions and strips them of important workplace protections against unfair treatment and discrimination.
H.R. 8687 was introduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly, Chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
The bill would rescind the executive order and block agencies from using federal funds to implement its provisions. It would also allow any position or appointment that was converted from the civil service to the newly created Schedule F pursuant to the executive order be converted back to the competitive service, and provides anyone converted to a Schedule F who was subsequently fired to be reinstated with backpay.
Urge your lawmakers to fight this with everything they've got. Tell them to cosponsor H.R. 8687 TODAY!
In Solidarity,
AFGE
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