How Many Cups #20: The Pendleton Act of 1883, Schedule F And Why You Should Know It
a quick civics lessons so you can impress your know-it-all folks at happy hour
A Mug While Hate-Watching Mainstream Media
Some people write policy blogs to their miniscule yet gradually growing readership. Some folks actually make policy happen. I, dear friends, occupy the former while daydreaming about the latter, which only serves to cement my status as a bachelor with no life. But Schedule F is the topic at hand, not the depths of monotony my life has descended into.
Despite having only a short stint as a Trump directive between 2020 and 2021, Schedule F managed to shoot panic into government wonks everywhere, liberals in particular. The former president argued that “appropriate management oversight” of bureaucrats in unique policymaking positions was firmly under his purview. What’s more, the “current performance management” of these bureaucrats was deemed “inadequate” and therefore in need of an overhaul.
By proclaiming - via executive order - an ability “to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions” Trump attempted to upend a longtime Washington norm. Traditionally, civil servants earn their positions through a competitive hiring practice. One has to prove their know-how in whichever government agency they sought employment in. Experience, a degree or multiple, and assuredly an uncle possessing speed dial to the hiring manager were the job requirements.
With The Removal of Schedule F, However…
Those requirements would become null and void. In layman’s terms, the president and his cronies could fire those who disagreed with his agenda and replace them with underqualified acolytes who have proven their ideological loyalty.
After resisting a coup d’etat and subsequently taking office, President Biden soon repealed this executive order. Civil servants no longer had to worry about being fired and replaced with partisan loyalists and newcomers could rely on their merit and nepotism during the application process.
But Why Is This Important?
During the mid to late 1800s, presidents often engaged in a spoils system. Upon winning the presidency, they would seek to fire federal employees who disagreed with them and then hire new ones who would do nothing but push their agenda. The Pendleton Act of 1883 put a halt to this practice, and for good reason.
Now of course, this seems like a natural consequence of winning an election. After all, the president’s cabinet is full of secretaries who have their job to do precisely that. Shouldn’t a new president be allowed to employ the folks necessary for ushering in new ideas?
But the cabinet includes a total of 16 executive heads, one of them being the Vice President. After undergoing a campaign season vetting process before going through senate confirmation hearings, this specific hiring process does not prove too difficult. Firing then hiring thousands of new civil servants, however, surely is.
Keeping those folks on the job is essential to the mechanisms which make our expansive federal system functional (with functional being the operative word, of course.) If this many bureaucrats had to be replaced every fours year then our day-to-day chaos would plummet into an order of chaos we find incomprehensible.
Nearly Every…
Republican politician with eyes on the oval office has signaled their allegiance to reinstating Schedule F. President Trump surely has. The conservative Heritage Foundation proposed eliminating up to 20,000 jobs then rehiring loyalists via Schedule F, which gives you a scope of just how enormous of an impact this could have.
Some publications, such as Axios, have estimated that up to 50,000 workers could be replaced, and that is considered to be a low-ball guess. Some of those workers include government scientists and attorneys working for intelligence agencies. I’ll let you surmise how that could bad for those who enjoy the tandem pillars of American Life called clear air and liberty.
Nevertheless
This is a news story that will occasionally pop into your airwaves, likely when Morning Joe finds Trump has gone too long without saying something ridiculous, such as “I said I want to be a dictator for one day” or that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Keep an eye out for it, folks.