Breakup of Civil Service Progressing

If DoD’s request is granted, the majority of federal employees would be outside what is generally considered to be “standard” civil service policies. Already outside those rules are the IRS, with about 100,000 employees, the Federal Aviation Administration, with about 50,000, the Department of Homeland Security, projected to be 170,000 or above eventually, and the Veterans Affairs Department, with about 200,000, most of them under separate rules for employees in medical fields. With the total federal employee population at just under 1.8 million, Capitol Hill officials have said that de facto civil service reform is under way, even in the absence of government-wide reforms in hiring, pay and other policies.