16 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A Pitch for Civil Service Reform In response to potential plans to revive the “Schedule F” executive order, a group of nonpartisan experts and scholars convened a workshop at the National Academy of Public Administration to discuss “Protecting and Reforming the U.S. Civil Service.” This workshop, spurred by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, calls for Civil Service reforms to ensure an effective and impartial federal workforce. The proposed Schedule F would reclassify numerous federal positions, stripping them of long-standing protections and making them “at-will” positions. This shift could allow employees to be hired or fired based on political loyalty rather than competence or expertise, potentially undermining the quality and objectivity of U.S. government officials. The working group’s aim was to offer a constructive alternative vision for a more effective federal workforce, structured by five principles: agility, accountability, collaboration, outcomes, and capacity. The vision involves modernizing the outdated pay and classification system, investing in training and education for federal workers, and maintaining loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law. The group asserts that reviving Schedule F would not help an administration execute policies more effectively or achieve these forward-looking goals. Instead, it would undermine the federal workforce’s ability to innovate and take justified risks. Moving forward, the group plans to further elaborate on how the federal government can evolve to meet 21st- century challenges and ensure a more agile, accountable, collaborative, outcome-driven, and capable civil service. State Department Integrity and Transparency Act Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has introduced the State Department Integrity and Transparency Act, which aims to professionalize the State Department workforce and ensure senior leaders are selected based on merit, not political connections. Co-sponsored by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the bill was introduced in response to controversies surrounding political-appointee ambassadors who lack diplomatic experience. It is intended to balance the traditional practice of rewarding political donors with ambassadorships and the need for qualified and effective diplomatic representatives. The legislation mandates that at least 75 percent of assistant secretaries come from the Senior Foreign Service or Senior Executive Service, extends reporting requirements on the qualifications of nominees, and requires presidential certification that competence is the primary qualification for chiefs of mission. It also seeks to limit the assignment of unvetted political appointees to overseas posts. The move has garnered support from AFSA and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, both of which emphasize the importance of maintaining a professional and capable diplomatic corps. According to AFSA’s ambassador tracker, 62 percent of President Joe Biden’s ambassadors are career personnel. Under the previous administration, just 56.6 percent were career diplomats. FS at 100: Opportunities and Threats On June 20, DACOR and George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs hosted the third in a series of roundtable talks on “The U.S. Foreign Service at 100.” While intended to address broad threats to U.S. foreign policy, the discussion largely focused on Schedule F and its potential ramifications. If you look at the history of the last 12 years, it’s a history of some huge conflicts like Ukraine, like Gaza, like Sudan, like Myanmar. And it’s a history of older conflicts not getting resolved. This is a world that has become unable to make peace. The systems put in place after World War II to make peace are so obsolete, so out of date, that frankly, it doesn’t work anymore. And that means that this accumulation of conflicts with all the refugees and displaced people that it carries with it is growing every year. —Filippo Grandi, the high commissioner of the UN’s refugee agency, in an interview with Foreign Policy on June 14. Contemporary Quote
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