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#Civil Service

30 entries

Branches (1)
Office of Presidential Personnel
The White House office that recruits, vets, and recommends people for the President's roughly four thousand political appointments
Departments (1)
The Foreign Service
The career corps of diplomats who staff American embassies and consulates around the world
Agencies (8)
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Reorganizing
The 2025 White House initiative to cut federal spending, staff, and contracts and modernize government technology
Federal Labor Relations Authority
The independent agency that oversees labor relations and union rights for most federal employees
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
The independent agency that runs the Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k)-style retirement savings plan for federal employees and members of the military
Merit Systems Protection Board
The quasi-judicial independent agency that hears federal employees' appeals of firings and other major personnel actions
Post Office Department Dissolved
The cabinet department that ran the mail for nearly two centuries, from Benjamin Franklin's appointment in 1775 until it became the self-supporting U.S. Postal Service in 1971
The Office of Personnel Management
The federal government's human resources agency: hiring rules, pay, benefits, and retirement for about 2.3 million civilian employees
U.S. Civil Service Commission Dissolved
The bipartisan commission created in 1883 to replace patronage with merit hiring in federal jobs, which ran the civil service until 1978
U.S. Office of Special Counsel
The independent agency that protects federal employees and whistleblowers and enforces the Hatch Act
Offices & Roles (10)
Competitive vs. Excepted Service
The two main tracks of federal employment: competitive jobs filled through open merit hiring, and excepted jobs filled under special authorities outside the usual rules
Federal Employee Unions Reorganizing
The labor organizations that represent federal workers in bargaining over working conditions, under a 1978 law that bars strikes and bargaining over pay
General Schedule Pay System
The 15-grade, 10-step pay scale that sets salaries for most white-collar federal employees, adjusted each year and by locality
Political Appointees
The roughly 4,000 officials each President chooses to lead the executive branch, about 1,300 of whom need Senate confirmation
Schedule C and Schedule F Reorganizing
The federal job categories that exempt certain policy-related positions from competitive hiring: Schedule C for political aides, and Schedule F, now Schedule Policy/Career, for career employees in policy roles
Senior Executive Service
The corps of about 8,000 top managers just below presidential appointees, created in 1978 to give the government a mobile, accountable class of career executives
The Federal Civil Service Reorganizing
The career workforce of the federal government: about two million civilians hired on merit and protected from political dismissal
The Federal Workforce by the Numbers
How many people work for the federal government, where they work, which agencies employ them, and how the workforce has changed, including the 2025 reductions
The Plum Book
The list, published after each presidential election, of about 9,000 federal leadership and support positions that can be filled by political appointment
U.S. Ambassadors
The President's personal representatives abroad, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, who lead U.S. embassies and missions to international organizations
Processes (3)
Government Shutdowns
What happens when appropriations lapse: furloughs, closed parks, and essential work done without pay
Reductions in Force
The formal federal layoff procedure agencies use to eliminate positions, governed by rules on retention, veterans' preference, and notice, and used on a large scale in 2025
Whistleblower Protections
The federal laws that protect government employees and contractors who report waste, fraud, abuse, or illegal conduct from retaliation, and the channels for making such reports
Principles (3)
The Deep State
A contested term for career officials, especially in intelligence and law enforcement, said to resist or work against elected leaders, and the debate over bureaucratic power it reflects
The Revolving Door
The movement of people between government jobs and lobbying or industry positions related to their public work, and the cooling-off rules that limit it
The Spoils System and Merit Reform
The nineteenth-century practice of giving government jobs to party loyalists, and the merit system that replaced it after the Pendleton Act of 1883
Documents & Cases (3)
Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
The law that replaced the Civil Service Commission with OPM, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the FLRA, created the Senior Executive Service, and set federal labor rules
Hatch Act
The 1939 law limiting partisan political activity by federal employees, and some state and local workers, to keep government work separate from campaigns
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
The 1883 law that founded the federal merit system, requiring competitive examinations for covered jobs and barring political firings and forced contributions
States & Local (1)
Council-Manager Government
The form of local government in which an elected council sets policy and hires a professional manager to run day-to-day operations
All Tags
Executive Branch 148 Legislative Branch 110 Separation of Powers 110 Economy 108 Cabinet Department 105 Constitution 94 Budget 80 Supreme Court 77 Elections 76 Federalism 75 States 70 Judicial Branch 65 National Security 62 Law Enforcement 59 Administrative State 58 Oversight 49 Military 45 Foreign Policy 40 Health 39 Environment 36 Independent Agency 35 Statute 31 Civil Service 30 Data & Statistics 29 Regulatory Commission 28 Former Agency 24 Emergency Management 24 Transportation 24 Intelligence 22 Education 22 Immigration 22 Taxation 21 Government Corporation 15 Territories 12 Veterans 9 Tribal 8