The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023

18 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The murder of the president by a patronage seeker prompted Congress to act on reforming the government’s hiring practices. Spanish-American War, and already engaged in laying the groundwork of a vast foreign trade upon which it should one day become more and more dependent, found itself without the machinery for giving thorough attention to, and taking effective action on, a mass of intricate business vital to American interests in every country in the world. “The Department of State was an archaic and inadequate machine lack- ing most of the attributes of the foreign office of any great modern power. Expert knowledge and professional training must evidently be the essence of this reorgani- zation. President Cleveland had taken the first step toward introducing the merit sys- tem in the foreign service. That had been followed by the application of the merit principle, with excellent results, to the entire consular branch. Almost nothing, however, had been done in this direction with regard to the Diplomatic Service. “Therefore, by an Executive Order I placed the Diplomatic Service up to the grade of secretary of embassy, inclusive, upon exactly the same strict nonpartisan basis of the merit system, rigid examination for appointment and promotion only for efficiency, as had been maintained without exception in the Consular Service.” A Professional Foreign Service Not all presidents shared Taft’s concern. Ironically, under the president most associated with international affairs, WoodrowWilson, the professionalization of the State Department did not advance. Besides Wilson’s attitude, it was hindered by the expectation that ambassadors would cover the entire cost of representa- tional entertaining. That prompted Wilson to name several men to key posts who were noteworthy mainly for their wealth. Following the end of World War I, Con- gress decided to legislate the professional- ization of the diplomatic corps instead of leaving it entirely up to the president. As the short history on the State Department’s website explains: “After the war ended, Congress completed the pre- war movement toward a fully professional and democratic Foreign Service. In 1924, the Rogers Act fundamentally reformed the foreign services by establishing a career organization based on competitive examination and merit promotion.”The Foreign Service Act of 1980, prompted by the corruption of the Nixon administra- tion, reenforced further the protections afforded career diplomats. The purpose of all this history is to show that there is a long line of political leaders who appreciated the value of a Civil Service and Foreign Service largely composed of professional, career people. They understood that government could not serve the country effectively if there were a massive turnover in federal employees every time a new occupant was in the White House. They also knew that America could not play a significant role in the world if the only require- ment for a government job was loyalty to the president. It is bad enough that the United States is the only country in the world that sells the title of ambassador in exchange for campaign contribu- tions. To vastly increase the number of government officials who obtained their job solely because they helped get the president elected would confirm in the eyes of the world that America should not be taken seriously. A Resurrection of “Schedule F”? Today, it is clear that the importance of the professionalization of government that brought an end to the 19th-century spoils system commands no respect in some quarters. According to media reports, people around the previous president are busy planning the resurrec- tion of “Schedule F,” the executive order issued by Donald Trump and promptly rescinded by President Joe Biden. It would strip any official who has any- thing to do with policy of any real career protections or due process. Government employees could essentially be fired at will or even on a whim. The jobs placed on Schedule F would be all “positions of a confidential, policy- determining, policy-making, or policy- advocating character not normally sub- ject to change as a result of a Presidential transition.” That definition could cover as many as 50,000 positions. Trump has said he would reinstitute Schedule F in a second term. Well-funded groups are reported to be developing lists of candidates to fill the jobs listed under Schedule F by build- ing databases of people who are “vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda.” These groups are often staffed by former Trump aides and include the Center for Renewing America, the Amer- ica First Policy Institute, the Conservative Partnership Institute, and the Heritage Foundation. Even more jaw-dropping than Sched- ule F is H.R. 8550, a bill introduced in the House last July by Representative