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Federal Civil Service

What is it?
What is its history?
How does it operate today?

The federal civil service comprises civilian (non-military) employees who occupy positions within the government’s many departments, agencies and commissions.1  Employees are hired based on merit: that is, they are chosen from among all applicants because they possess the skills, education and experience that best match a position’s requirements.  Position qualifications are developed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM, discussed below) in conjunction with the hiring office.  The recruitment and screening process is conducted professionally and is non-partisan.  Most employees are hired through the OPM; however, several departments requiring special skills, talent or training operate their own personnel systems, eg, the State Department (Foreign Service), the FBI, and several agencies concerned with national security, such as the CIA.2  Civil service employees are subject to annual performance reviews; nonetheless, officials seeking to dismiss them must afford them due process and have a legitimate reason, as discussed below. 

The size of the federal workforce in 1960 was approximately 2 million.  In 2024, the number was essentially unchanged despite the growth in the number of federal departments and agencies, and the programs they manage or oversee.  What has increased, however, is the number of private contractors hired by the federal government to function as managers in place of federal employees.3  Additionally, approximately 33% of all federal workers are veterans, a large percentage considering veterans compose about 5% of all civilian workers.  In FY 2023, approximately 25% of the federal government’s newest hires were veterans.4

The Constitution grants Congress the power to create all federal departments; these are found both in its enumerated (expressed) powers in Article I: the power of the purse, and in its implied powers contained in the “the necessary and proper” clause (Article I, section 8, clause 18) that grants Congress the ability to carry out its broadly stated powers listed in the preceding clauses.5

Among the first laws passed when the first Congress took office in 1789 were those that created three cabinet departments, State, War and Treasury, as well as the Office of Attorney General.  All were placed in the executive branch under the President’s authority.  Presidential nominees filled these offices, but Senate confirmation of these appointments was required.  Congress appropriated monies to pay the salaries of the cabinet secretaries, who at the time paid their personal secretaries from their personal funds.  Other department employees were paid from the US Treasury (eg, ambassadors and tax collectors).6  As the country physically expanded and its economy grew, diversifying from agriculture to industry to commerce to technology, Congress, responding to public demand, created more departments to oversee or regulate these sectors in the public interest.7

George Washington, as the first president, hired people to work in the departments based on “fitness of character,” that is, the individual’s moral character and experience relevant to the position.  Washington employed mostly people who shared his political views, viz.  Federalists, but he did hire some who disagreed with him, eg, Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, as Secretary of State.  Subsequent presidents continued to follow Washington’s approach, though from Jefferson to Monroe, many more Democratic-Republican people were hired, as the presidents were of that party.  During Monroe’s administration, the Tenure of Office Act (1820) was passed that formalized the hiring process based on patronage.8  President Andrew Jackson famously ran his 1828 campaign expressly promising to reward his most loyal followers, which he did once in office.  The expression “to the victor, belong the spoils” came to be associated with patronage as the spoils system.9

Patronage brought constant rotation through government positions.  This rotation proved inefficient, as new personnel had to learn their jobs without assistance.  As many had no relevant experience or were completely incompetent, errors occurred and waste was prevalent.  Worse, corruption became an accepted price of business.  Federal workers were “assessed” each year by their party’s leaders, that is, personnel received envelopes into which they were expected to place 10% of their salaries as a contribution to their party.  Scandals on a larger scale were also uncovered, such as in 1838 when the Port of New York tax collector embezzled over $1 million and subsequently fled to Europe when it was revealed. 

By the 1870s, the waste, inefficiencies and rampant corruption lead President Grant to propose the first serious reforms to the federal personnel system, but he was rebuffed by congressional Republican party leaders who benefited personally from patronage.10  Republican James A. Garfield won the November 1880 election running as a reformer, but was assassinated on July 2, 1881 by an unhappy Republican who failed to receive a patronage job that he felt he deserved.11  Public outrage forced Congress to act quickly to transform the system, and in 1883 it passed the Civil Service Act, also known as the Pendleton Act for its prime sponsor.  The Act forbade hiring federal employees based on race, religion or national origins.  It mandated that qualifications for federal positions be specified and strengthened.  Most importantly, it protected federal employees from removal by incoming presidents for partisan reasons.  The Act also created the Civil Service Commission, composed of three members who were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, served seven-year terms, and could only be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.  The Commission and its small staff were empowered to determine job titles, qualifications, and the testing methods for those qualifications, to advertise the positions, and to test and screen the applicants.  Originally, the Act only covered about 10% of the federal workforce, but over time, Congress extended the Act to include nearly 90% of today’s workforce. 

Congress passed other laws and Presidents took steps that enhanced federal workers’ protections and benefits.  In chronological order:

The Civil Service Reform Act, proposed by President Carter and passed by Congress, eliminated the Civil Service Commission and replaced it with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) with its Special Counsel.  The OPM is an independent agency whose head is appointed by the President, with responsibilities comparable to those of the former Civil Service Commission.  The MSPB is an independent, regulatory agency, the three members of which are appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serve for seven years.  It assumed responsibility for protecting federal workers from unfair labor practices, such as termination without proper cause.  The Act also created the Senior Executive Service.  Under this classification, federal offices may designate high level civil service positions as “senior executives.”  These senior positions would be filled by anyone currently employed by the federal government in any other federal office after a competitive selection process.  Although paid a higher salary, anyone accepting a senior executive position loses civil service job security, making senior executives easier to remove.  There are two conflicting goals here.  One was to permit ambitious and talented federal employees to explore their potential, increase their income and advance their careers beyond the agency in which they were originally hired; the other, to make it easier to remove these federal employees if they failed to perform satisfactorily.

Two other offices exist to protect federal workers: the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  The FLRA is an independent agency that administers relations between management and employees covered by the OPM, which does not include postal workers.  The EEOC enforces laws against workplace discrimination with a mission to promote equal opportunity in employment. 

The most recent changes to the federal civil service came during President Trump’s first term in office.  On October 2, 2020, the President issued Executive Order 13957.  This order created a Schedule F classification, under which federal employees lose their job protections.  The President sought to move large numbers of employees into this class.  President Biden rescinded the Executive Order.  Upon his reelection, President Trump issued another Executive Order creating a Schedule Policy/Career classification.  Much like Schedule F, it removes job protections from positions under this classification but also allows the President to fill these positions with loyal supporters, without going through the OPM screening process.  Essentially, this is a return to the patronage system.12

  1. All of America’s military branches also have their own recruitment systems as well as personnel departments.  ⇧
  2. There are also over 7,000 positions currently identified as senior executive service leadership and support positions.  Of these, the positions in the executive branch are filled by the President, and those in the legislative branch, by congressional leaders.  They generally are noncompetitive appointments, such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, or policy executives and their advisors and their aides.  Much of their work involves advocating partisan policies or advising the President and congressional leaders on policy matters.  These positions are compiled in the Plum Book, which is published after every presidential election, alternately by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs or by the House Committee on Government Reform.  Of the 7,000 positions, approximately 1,800 are in the Executive Office of the President, which contains the White House Office.  ⇧
  3. For a full examination of this phenomenon, see  John J. Diulio, Jr.,  Bring Back the Bureaucrats: Why More Federal Workers Will Lead to Better (and Smaller) Government.  Templeton Press, 2014.  ⇧
  4. Hersey, Linda F. “ ‘On the backs of veterans’: Senators rail against federal workforce purge as vets hit hard by cuts.” Stars and Stripes, February 19, 2025.  ⇧
  5. For example, nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of an Internal Revenue Service.  Because Congress has the power to “lay and collect taxes,” the necessary and proper clause allows Congress to exercise this power by creating an agency like the IRS and then funding it.  ⇧
  6. There was no federal income tax at this time.  Nearly all federal revenue came from import taxes, with the remaining monies coming from excise taxes, eg, taxes on whiskey, carriages, etc.  ⇧
  7. Cabinet departments were added in the following order: Post Office (1792; replaced by the USPS, a governmental corporation, in 1971), Navy (1798), Interior (1849), Agriculture (1862), Justice (1870), Commerce (1903), Labor (1913), Defense (1947; the DOD replaced War and incorporated Navy), Health, Education and Welfare (1953 - HEW), Housing and Urban Development (1965 - HUD), Transportation (1966), Energy (1977), Education (1979), Health and Human Services (1979 – HHS, which replaced HEW), Veterans Affairs (1989; this was formerly an independent department that was elevated to Cabinet status), and Homeland Security (2002).  ⇧
  8. Patronage is s system hiring people based primarily on their loyalty to the party in power.  Loyalty is demonstrated by voting for the party, contributing to the party and working actively for the party’s candidate.  The longer a person showed loyalty, the more likely a person was to receive a position.  The Tenure of Office Act required that the length of service of all federal employees was four years, to match that of the president’s term.  It assured that every four years the new president would have the ability to bring in his party’s most deserving and loyal members.  This process came to be known as “rotation in office.”  ⇧
  9. While the expression has been linked to Jackson, it was first uttered by NY Senator William L. Marcy in the 1830s.  ⇧
  10. Members of Congress used patronage to reward their loyal constituents by recommending them to the President.  This assured the Congress members of financial support for their reelection campaigns as well as dedicated voters.  ⇧
  11. The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, shot Garfield in the pancreas at the D.C. railroad station.  Garfield might have lived, but his physicians’ inability to remove the bullet and properly clean the wound contributed to his death on September 19.  Guiteau was a member of the Stalwart wing of the GOP, and he believed that he would be rewarded by VP Chester Arthur when Arthur, also a Stalwart, became President.  Arthur had been added to the GOP ticket to balance it, that is, to please the Stalwart wing of the party.  Arthur was also a beneficiary of patronage, becoming wealthy while serving as a federal tax collector for the Port of New York.  ⇧
  12. In 2025, President Trump issued executive orders removing people from their civil service positions without specifying a cause, and offering early retirement buyouts without following civil service procedures (found in the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946 and its subsequent amendments).  These actions have been challenged in federal district courts and are being appealed to the Supreme Court.  ⇧

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