Editor,

As someone proud to have served the American people as a federal scientist in the Department of Interior for more than 30 years, I am disheartened by the recent attacks on the public servants who ensure our country’s operation. The Trump administration is undermining the merit-based civil service system through the creation of Schedule Policy/Career (P/C), formerly referred to as Schedule F, an effort to politicize the civil service, undoing reforms that have supported a nonpartisan America’s workforce since the Pendleton Act was signed in 1883. There has also been talk of requiring “loyalty tests” for new federal employees. This is disturbing to me.

The foundation of the federal workforce depends on the hiring and firing of individuals based upon merit, not loyalty to party or the president. The existing rules don’t only protect federal employees from an unfair workplace; they also protect the American people from partisan politically motivated actions in the place of the services mandated by Congress for the American people.

The Saving the Civil Service Act (H.R. 492/ S. 134) presents an opportunity to protect the integrity and quality of the Federal civil service against cronyism. Please urge your representatives and senators to support it.

Curtis Price

Clinton