Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo.) on Tuesday blocked a request by Democratic senators to pass legislation to protect federal workers from civil service reforms that President-elect Trump has endorsed to fight what he calls the “deep state” in Washington, D.C.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) stood on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act, warning there have been “attempts in recent years to erode the independence of the federal civil service,” referring to Trump’s efforts during his first term.
Kaine and other Democrats fear that Trump, now reelected, may attempt to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees who could be hired and fired at will.
Kaine argued that federal workers need to keep their civil service protections to insulate them from political retaliation. He argued that such protections would better equip them to implement federal laws and policies dispassionately.
His bill would prohibit any position in the federal civil service from being reclassified as a job outside of the merit-based system without the consent of Congress.
But the request was swiftly rejected by Schmitt, who argued the nation’s Founding Fathers worried about the concentration of power in Washington.
“What we’ve seen in the last 100 years is the growth of an administrative state that isn’t accountable to anybody,” he said.
“There is no secret that President Trump ran on greater government efficiency and reducing the size of government. This is another effort to Trump-proof before Jan. 20,” he declared, referring to the upcoming Inauguration Day.
Some of Trump’s top advisers, including his nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, have endorsed reclassifying federal workers to “Schedule F” to get around civil service protections that make it very difficult to fire them.
Trump signed an executive order in October 2020, creating Schedule F in the excepted government service. Reclassifying federal workers under Schedule F would require agencies to remove due process rights and civil service protections for policymaking positions.
President Biden repealed the order in January 2021.
Kaine’s office warned last year that reclassifying federal workers would allow Trump to fire as many as 50,000 federal workers and replace them with political hires.
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) spoke on the floor in favor of protecting civil servants.
“Back in the 19th century we saw what happens when you have a federal workforce that was made up of political spoils and political patriots. So Congress back in 1883 said that we should put in place an independent civil service. That has been the law of the land for 150 years,” Warner said.
Van Hollen pointed out that Trump proposed Schedule F at the end of his first term to empower his administration to convert merit-based positions into politically based positions.
“In other words, substituting political cronies for qualified merit-based federal employees. That’s a recipe for corruption,” he said.
The Democratic lawmakers argued that under current law Trump will have the power to nominate people to 4,000 political positions.
“We’re not talking about taking that away. We’re saying you can’t convert thousands of other positions that today are based on merit into those political type jobs,” Van Hollen said.
