The Schedule F order would have converted thousands of positions into essentially political appointments. Image: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn amendment will be offered to block a potential future “Schedule F” as the Senate votes on its version of the annual DoD authorization bill (S-2226), potentially as soon as this week.
The amendment from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., would bar shifting competitive service federal employees involved with setting or carrying out policies into the excepted service, as an executive order late in the Trump administration sought to do. That would have turned those positions essentially into political appointees, with competition not required in hiring and with civil service union and appeal rights no longer applying.
President Biden revoked that order on taking office but Trump and several other 2024 Republican Presidential candidates have said they would reinstate it. While agencies did relatively little toward carrying out the order during its several months of existence, former Trump administration officials advocating for such a policy estimate that a “Schedule F” ultimately could apply to 50,000 or more positions.
Last year the House, then under Democratic control, passed legislation to prevent that as both a freestanding bill and as an amendment to a defense bill. However, the Senate—then as now also under Democratic control—did not take up the former and the latter was dropped in a House-Senate conference.
If the Senate accepts this year’s amendment, the issue would become one of many partisan differences in this year’s defense bill, a measure that traditionally passed with strong bipartisan support. In voting on its version (HR-2670) last week, House Republicans added numerous social policy provisions, resulting in that bill passing with only a few Democrats in favor.
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