Schedule F is about accountability, not spoils system, ex-officials say – By Molly Weisner (Federal Times) / June 30, 2023
Senior federal officials from the Trump administration said Schedule F, the dormant policy to make thousands of federal employees at-will, is a solution to lacking accountability, not a reversion to the spoils system, as its critics have said.
Relying on data from a governmentwide annual survey, the officials who defended the policy said the government’s own workers have identified inadequate processes to deal with poor performers. Schedule F would restore that, they said in a panel discussion hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration on Thursday.
Schedule F would have moved employees in policymaking or confidential positions into appointed positions, meaning there would be fewer barriers to firing them.
“This is really just an attempt to address one of the chief concerns that federal employees themselves have articulated year after year in [the survey], and that’s the question that says: in my work unit, steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot, or will not, improve,” said Michael Rigas, the acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.
