Regulacje i polityka gospodarcza · 18.09.2023

Upholding Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to reinforce and clarify longstanding civil service protections and merit system principles, codified in law, as they relate to the movement of Federal employees and positions from the competitive service to the excepted service, or from one excepted service schedule to another. First, it clarifies that, upon such a move, an employee retains the status and civil service protections they had already accrued by law, unless the employee relinquishes such rights or status by voluntarily encumbering a position that explicitly results in a loss of, or different, rights. Second, it interprets "confidential, policy- determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating" and "confidential or policy-determining" to describe positions, generally excepted from civil service protections, in accordance with statutory text, legislative history for that text, and congressional intent, to reinforce the interpretation that this term was intended to mean noncareer, political appointments. Third, it provides specific additional procedures that apply when moving positions from the competitive service to the excepted service, or from one excepted s