Saving the Civil Service Act

Subjects: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:  <p><b>Saving the Civil Service Act</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits executive agency positions in the competitive service from being placed in the excepted service, unless such positions are placed in Schedules A through E as in effect on September 30, 2020. The bill also prohibits positions in the excepted service from being placed in any schedule other than the aforementioned schedules. </p> <p>Additionally, agencies may not (1) transfer occupied positions from the competitive or excepted service into Schedule C without the consent of the Office of Personnel Management, or (2) transfer employees in the excepted service to another schedule or transfer employees in the competitive service to the excepted service without employee consent. The bill also caps the number of employees that may be transferred from the competitive service to the excepted service during a presidential term to 1% of total employees as of the first day of the term or five employees, whichever is greater.</p> <p>On October 21, 2020, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled <i>Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service</i>. The order placed executive agency positions that are of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character, and that are not normally subject to change as a result of a presidential transition, under a new schedule in the excepted service (Schedule F) instead of the competitive service. The order also required any such positions in the excepted service to be reclassified to Schedule F. The order was subsequently revoked by President Joe Biden.</p>

<html><body><pre>[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 399 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

&lt;DOC&gt;






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 399

   To place limitations on excepting positions from the competitive 
                    service, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 14, 2023

Mr. Kaine (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Warner, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Van 
 Hollen, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Markey, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Hirono, Mr. King, 
 Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Casey, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Carper) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To place limitations on excepting positions from the competitive 
                    service, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Saving the Civil Service Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS ON EXCEPTING POSITIONS FROM COMPETITIVE SERVICE AND 
              TRANSFERRING POSITIONS.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section--
            (1) the term ``agency'' means any department, agency, or 
        instrumentality of the Federal Government;
            (2) the term ``competitive service'' has the meaning given 
        the term in section 2102 of title 5, United States Code;
            (3) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the Office 
        of Personnel Management; and
            (4) the term ``excepted service'' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 2103 of title 5, United States Code.
    (b) Limitations.--A position in the competitive service may not be 
excepted from the competitive service unless that position is placed--
            (1) in any of schedules A through E, as described in 
        section 6.2 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, as in 
        effect on September 30, 2020; and
            (2) under the terms and conditions under part 6 of title 5, 
        Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on September 30, 
        2020.
    (c) Transfers.--
            (1) Within excepted service.--A position in the excepted 
        service may not be transferred to any schedule other than a 
        schedule described in subsection (b)(1).
            (2) OPM consent required.--An agency may not transfer any 
        occupied position from the competitive service or the excepted 
        service into schedule C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5, 
        Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulations, 
        without the prior consent of the Director.
            (3) Limit during presidential term.--During any 4-year 
        presidential term, an agency may not transfer from a position 
        in the competitive service to a position in the excepted 
        service the greater of the following:
                    (A) A total number of employees that is more than 1 
                percent of the total number of employees employed by 
                that agency, as of the first day of that presidential 
                term.
                    (B) 5 employees.
            (4) Employee consent required.--Notwithstanding any other 
        provision of this section--
                    (A) an employee who occupies a position in the 
                excepted service may not be transferred to an excepted 
                service schedule other than the schedule in which that 
                position is located without the prior written consent 
                of the employee; and
                    (B) an employee who occupies a position in the 
                competitive service may not be transferred to the 
                excepted service without the prior written consent of 
                the employee.
    (d) Other Matters.--
            (1) Application.--Notwithstanding section 7425(b) of title 
        38, United States Code, this section shall apply to a position 
        under chapter 73 or 74 of that title.
            (2) Report.--Not later than March 15 of each calendar year, 
        the Director shall submit to Congress a report on the 
        immediately preceding calendar year that lists--
                    (A) each position that, during the year covered by 
                the report, was transferred from the competitive 
                service to the excepted service and a justification as 
                to why each such position was so transferred; and
                    (B) any violation of this section that occurred 
                during the year covered by the report.
    (e) Regulations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue regulations to 
implement this section.
                                 &lt;all&gt;
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