Congress Must Intervene To Stop Politicization Of The US Civil Service

CONGRESS MUST REVERSE THE NEW CIVIL SERVICE RULE As your constituent, I am writing to urge Congress to act promptly and decisively to legislatively reverse the Office of Personnel Management’s new “Schedule Policy/Career” rule and to restore the full civil service protections that federal employees relied on prior to this change. This rule fundamentally alters long-standing merit-based employment safeguards that Congress deliberately put in place to ensure a professional, nonpartisan federal workforce. THE PRIOR CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM PROTECTED GOVERNMENT INTEGRITY AND CONTINUITY For more than a century, Congress has required that most federal employees be hired, evaluated, and retained based on merit rather than political loyalty. Those protections ensured continuity across administrations, preserved institutional expertise, and enabled career professionals to carry out Congressional mandates faithfully, even when doing so was politically inconvenient. The prior framework also safeguarded whistleblowers and ensured that employees could raise legal or ethical concerns without fear of arbitrary retaliation. THE NEW RULE INVITES POLITICIZATION AND WEAKENS MERIT GOVERNANCE The Schedule Policy/Career rule allows agencies to reclassify large numbers of career employees into at-will status, stripping them of due process protections and appeal rights. This change risks replacing professional judgment with political conformity, discouraging candid advice, and accelerating turnover in policy-critical roles. Over time, this will erode agency competence, undermine regulatory consistency, and weaken public confidence in the impartial administration of federal law. WEAKENING WHISTLEBLOWER SAFEGUARDS RISKS SILENCING LAWFUL DISSENT By reducing independent oversight and increasing agency discretion over employee status, the new rule creates a chilling effect on whistleblowing and internal accountability. Employees who fear sudden reclassification or removal are far less likely to report waste, abuse, or illegality. That outcome directly conflicts with Congress’s repeated efforts to strengthen whistleblower protections and ensure transparency within the executive branch. CONGRESS MUST REASSERT ITS STATUTORY AUTHORITY OVER THE CIVIL SERVICE Congress created the civil service system by statute, and only Congress can ensure that its core protections are preserved. Allowing this rule to stand would effectively cede legislative authority over federal employment standards to the executive branch, undermining Congress’s constitutional role and weakening oversight of the laws it enacts. CONGRESS MUST INTERVENE TO PROTECT CIVIL SERVICE LAW (1) Speak out publicly against the Schedule Policy/Career rule and explain why merit-based civil service protections are essential to effective, lawful governance. (2) Hold Congressional hearings to examine the operational, ethical, and constitutional consequences of reclassifying career federal employees into at-will status. (3) Introduce or support legislation that nullifies this rule and explicitly restores statutory civil service protections, including due process, appeal rights, and independent whistleblower safeguards. Thank you.