What Event Changed The Republican Party Position On Civil Service Reform

Erstwhile President Jimmy Carter, shown here attending President Trump'due south inauguration, personally led the effort to overhaul the civil service 40 years ago. The Trump administration is seeking a similar overhaul of its own. Saul Loeb/AP

Imagine, if you lot will, "a ceremonious service in which federal agencies could hire qualified individuals of their ain choice, without outset having to cut through fourth dimension-consuming red tape . . . in which agencies could demote or fire incompetent workers without facing years of appeals . . . in which salaries corresponded with operation rather than longevity."

It sounds like the challenges the Trump administration aims to address in its recent massive proposal for government reorganization, its controversial trio of workforce direction executive orders, and its stated plan to restructure federal pay and benefits.

In fact, that's a description of challenges President Jimmy Carter faced, equally described by National Journal reporter Joel Havemann in October 1977.

One twelvemonth later, a month before midterm elections, Carter signed the 1978 Ceremonious Service Reform Act, the showtime overhaul of the government's workforce construction since 1883.

From concept to signature in 18 months, that far-reaching reform abolished the Civil Service Commission and replaced it with the new Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authorization. Information technology created the aristocracy and mobile nine,200-member Senior Executive Service "shielded" from political intimidation, recast federal pay scales and laid the groundwork for whistleblower protections past creating the Office of Special Counsel. Information technology loosened Hatch Act restrictions on 2.8 million federal workers and besides sought continuous improvement by authorizing personnel demonstration projects.

All were achieved during that summer xl years ago afterwards intricate horse-trading among lawmakers of both parties, an ambitious and prescriptive president, long-time ceremonious servants, labor unions and business representatives. Just the feat came with some drama and broken china. And four decades subsequently it stands out as an unusual confluence of multiple forces at piece of work.

Stuart Eizenstat, Carter's domestic policy adviser, in his 2018 volume President Carter: The White House Years, chosen it "the most important reform of the federal civil service since its founding."

Dwight Ink, a key designer of the effort, wrote in his 2018 book of public management studies Getting Things Done With Courage and Confidence (with Kurt Thurmaier), "I do non recall any other governmentwide management reforms so wide equally this ceremonious service reform being enacted at in one case or in so short a time."

What follows is a await back at the unlikely passage of that transformation that throws into relief the steep obstacles the Trump administration would likely come across in pursuing reform.

Defining the Issues

The roots of the 1978 reform go back to the campaign trail for the 1976 presidential election. Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter had boasted, in his 1975 book Why Non the Best?, of how he had successfully applied "zero-based budgeting" and reduced 278 land agencies to 22. "Naturally," the ex-governor wrote, "at that place was opposition from the bureaucrats who thrived on confusion, from special interests who preferred to work in the dark, and from a few legislators who did not want to see their fiefdoms endangered."

Candidate Carter fifty-fifty broached the wonky topic of improving federal management during a campaign end in Syracuse, Northward.Y. He was edifice on a feeling among many that the government's ineffectiveness had been one reason for unhappy outcomes of the Vietnam war, the early 1970s recessions and President Nixon's misuse of agencies during the Watergate scandal.

No sooner had Carter won the presidency than his transition team set a regime reorganization operation at the National Academy of Public Administration. Every bit Carter would after recall in his memoir Keeping Faith, the first major test of his reorganization plans was "a bill authorizing the president to address the problem of the federal hierarchy—its complication, its remoteness when people needed assist, its intrusiveness when they wanted to be left lonely, and its excessive regulation of the major industries to the detriment of consumers."

The Georgia Democrat did non win many feds' hearts when he said he wanted to "hold down the number of federal employees, reduce paperwork, and consolidate or eliminate as many of the small agencies and advisory groups as possible."

Carter's bulldoze for such authority and his executive commission for agency reform resulted in the Apr 1977 Reorganization Act that would assist with cosmos of the Energy Section in 1977 and the Instruction Department in 1979.

In early 1978, Carter declared that the existing ceremonious service system was "too oft a bureaucratic maze which stifles the initiative of our dedicated regime employees while inadequately protecting their rights."

One illness that needed a cure, Carter'due south Secretarial assistant of Health, Education and Welfare Joe Califano, recently told Government Executive, was that "we needed to attract first-charge per unit people to the federal regime and provide them with protections."

Having worked in the Pentagon and as ane of President Johnson's domestic policy advisers, Califano said he had seen "how hard civil servants worked" and how committed they were. "And then it was very of import that we say to these people at the start that this going to be a corking task, a tough job, and I know you lot're worth something for doing it." He dismissed as "nonsense" the notion that federal experts brand too much money. (The dedication of Califano'southward new book Our Damaged Democracy is a paean to public servants at all levels of government.)

In the regime's high ranks, "The system discourages full employment of talents of superior career 'super grades' because, to take a non-career policy task, they have to surrender their 'tenure rights,' wrote National Journal'southward Timothy Clark in 1978.  "The new system would let careerists to have non-career jobs with a guarantee that they could return to a high level job in the career service later completing their assignments."

Only similar in 2018, studies of pay comparability between federal workers and the private sector varied, with lower-level workers tending to do better in public employment, while higher-level professionals in government were probably behind their corporate counterparts.

Labor groups in detail wanted change. Though public unions were characterized equally "the stepchild of the national labor movement" by National Journal reporter James Singer, "the most important part performed by federal unions is lobbying on Capitol Hill," which has the most impact on the lives of federal workers, he noted.

Labor's elevation goal was formalizing a body to referee complaints about unfair labor practices and disciplinary decisions. Nether the system at the fourth dimension, challenges to adverse personnel deportment, "both for performance and conduct, by statute were first considered by agencies and then could be appealed to the Civil Service Commission," recalled Robert Tobias, then the caput of the National Treasury Employees Union and at present on the faculty at American Academy. President Nixon'southward Executive Guild 11491 prohibited grievances on matters covered past "statutory appeals," and binding arbitration of agin actions was not allowed, he said. Many times when the unions invoked advisory arbitration—which often produced a recommendation for an defendant employee to win reinstatement and full back pay—the bureau rejected that determination, prompting the union to press Congress for reforms that would let bounden arbitration.

Laying the Groundwork for Reform

The fledgling Carter team kickoff had to call in the experts. In a May 27, 1977, announcement, the administration set up the Personnel Management Project, a set up of task forces led by Civil Service Commission Chairman Alan "Scotty" Campbell, with OMB Associate Director Wayne Granquist equally his deputy.

Likewise instrumental in the planning, as Carter would later recall, were Office of Management and Budget official Jim McIntyre; Stanton Williams of PPG Industries and the Concern Roundtable; Ken Blaylock of the American Federation of Government Employees; Tom Donahue of the AFL-CIO; and David Cohen and John Gardner of Common Crusade.

The project eventually involved 120 members.

"The members believed that the Ceremonious Service Commission had been given a conflicting set of promotional and appellate roles that required a bones reorganization," recalled Ink, who was executive manager and "designer" until he was sidelined by a heart attack and replaced by Thomas Irish potato, director of the commission's Federal Executive Institute.

The experts parsed out such issues equally whether GS-12's to 15 should have merit pay while the "super grades" GS-16 to GS-18 would become the Senior Executive Service. The business concern community wanted more than flexibility in federal management, and labor wanted codified, formal authority, Ink recalled. He persuaded the unions to focus on the labor-direction relationship and not on budgets or programs, and then that eventually business concern and labor would lobby Congress together.

Managers should be free to manage, but "neither do they have a right to mismanage public programs by hiring incompetent cronies," Ink wrote.

Just as National Journal reported at the time, labor unions were wary: "The options prepared by the task forces address direction's concerns, not ours," said Irving Geller, general counsel of the National Federation of Federal Employees, American Federation of Government Employees. John Mulholland, AFGE's director of labor-direction services, said, "More than management flexibility—that means they don't want to negotiate."

The "Concluding Staff Written report" had 125 recommendations, which were distilled into legislative proposals by OMB'southward Granquist.

"Scotty's travels throughout the land generated a surprising amount of public support, something seldom developed for management reforms," Ink recalled.

In March 1978, Carter, who had personally served as the projection'due south executive chair, sent his proposals to Capitol Colina, recalling, "I said that civil service reform and reorganization would exist the centerpiece of my efforts to bring efficiency and accountability to the federal authorities. It will be the fundamental to better functioning in all federal agencies."

Horse Trading on the Colina

Jimmy Carter's first twelvemonth, though not without accomplishments, would go down in history for messy relations with lawmakers and mistrust of the southern Democrats among many traditional party constituencies. House Speaker Tip O'Neill, D-Mass., had told Carter in 1977, "Yous take proposed then much legislation, we can't handle it all."

Carter, as domestic adviser Eizenstat later wrote, was used to Georgia'south "mostly pliant" one-party legislature. And the president's relations with the federal workforce were non helped when he chose to limit the autumn pay raise to 5.5 percentage instead of an expected viii.4 percent.

"Federal employees are very depressed and worried," Bun Bray, executive manager of the National Association of Supervisors, told National Periodical. "They expected that Carter would exist a Democrat like Truman, Johnson and Kennedy—pro-government employee—but as it turns out, Carter is virtually every bit obstinate and anti-worker as Ford or Nixon."

But Carter pressed ahead. "The president seems adamant to use civil service reform to reverse his prototype as a president who tin't go what he wants from Congress, at least on domestic issues," wrote National Journal correspondent Harlan Lebo in May 1978.

Lebo chronicled how how the assistants pushed reform forrard. Carter met personally with Firm committee members, twice with Democrats, once with Republicans. The president also met with the American Federation of Government Employees, and assigned all Cabinet members to do lobbying. That irked Rep. Edward Derwinski, R-Sick., who said, "I thought it was a case of overkill. Their timing was way off; they should be calling when the legislation is on the flooring for a vote."

But project leader Campbell told National Journal, "civil service is not a sexy upshot, and nosotros know we wouldn't have gotten about this far without presidential interest."

On May 22, the Senate Governmental Diplomacy Committee began what would be a 1-month markup. The Firm Post Office and Civil Service Committee, chaired by Rep. Robert Nix, D-Pa., postponed consideration until after the Memorial Day recess. Leading the charge in the House was commission vice chair Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., and Jack Brooks, D-Texas. Republicans in favor included Jim Leach of Iowa.

Carter'southward team learned how to vestibule lawmakers such equally Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., by horse-trading with her on women'due south and Vietnam veterans issues. "Nosotros had the full general trouble of getting the pecker out of committee and getting the commission to deed," recalled Richard Pettigrew, the president's assistant for reorganization, in an oral history for the Carter Middle. The Post Office and Civil Service panel was "very hostile to the civil service reform program and its pro-direction tilt. It was a pro-spousal relationship committee, pro-employee committee and this reorganization was designed to give managers greater flexibility in firing, ii sets of incentive pay systems for systems with automatic pay increases."

According to Congressional Quarterly's Ann Cooper, "the widely divided [Business firm] committee gutted a key section of Carter'due south proposal and tacked on "Christmas tree amendments that include one bill vetoed past the president and another bill likely to prompt a Senate filibuster . . . The committee also voted to expand the ability of federal labor unions beyond the point administration officials called adequate," she wrote.

Primary among labor's supporters were Reps. William Ford, D-Mich., and William Dirt, D-Mo., whose carve up bill would have written collective bargaining into law and required talks on wages with seven unions.

Though consensus oftentimes proved elusive—journalists declared the neb on life-support—Republican support was strong in the Senate, under panel chairman Abraham Ribicoff, D-Conn., and subcommittee chaired past freshman James Sasser, D-Tenn.

Some, even so, promised a delay if provisions loosening the Hatch Act were not removed, due to a common perception among Republicans that federal employees leaned Democratic.

Also controversial was the proposed Senior Executive Service, which Rep. Herb Harris, D-Va., warned "will open the door to politicization," Congressional Quarterly reported. An amendment to brand the SES a two-year experiment at three agencies chosen by the president was defeated.

Senators such equally John Glenn, D-Ohio, and Charles Percy, R-Ill., successfully sought to adjourn the preference for veterans in hiring.

But the packet was canonical by the Senate panel on July 10 by an 8-2 vote, and past the Firm panel on July 19 by a vote of 18-7. Some Republicans were unhappy. "What started out every bit a bipartisan effort to write effective legislation degenerated into a blatant gutting of the bill" by Democrats, Derwinski said. Countered one Carter official, "We'd rather take a Christmas tree than a dead bush," Cooper reported.

On Aug. x, the bill was taken up for debate on the House flooring. The Senate quickly passed its version on Aug. 24, past a vote of 87-1. Following a Labor Day recess and mid-term election campaigning, a House vote was called on Sept.xiv. Its version passed 385-x, a margin that encouraged Dwight Ink, who knew it would brand things easier in conference with the Senate. Final passage came on Oct. vi, in fourth dimension for Carter to hold what he recalled in his diary as a "delightful" signing ceremony on Oct.xiii.

A 'Glow' in the End

Carter was told by Senate Bulk Leader Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., "I've been in the Congress 27 years, and have never seen such a tremendous legislative achievement." Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker, R-Tenn., was every bit praiseful. "We've got a Democratic president singing a Republican song," the Republican said.

"Everybody was proud of this achievement, which I think is momentous," Carter wrote in Keeping Religion. He noted it all happened within seven months—in a year that also brought passage of the Inspector General Human activity and the Ethics in Government Human activity. "During the final days of 1978, we deregulated the airlines, reformed the civil service system and raised the mandatory retirement age to seventy," he wrote. "All the strain, frustration and difficult feelings of the twelvemonth were speedily forgotten in the glow of adjournment."

In June 2018, when the Trump administration unveiled its most detailed government reorganization plan, Budget Managing director Mick Mulvaney said, "It's been near 100 years since anybody really reorganized the government at this type of scale."

Non quite. But that could accept been said in 1978.

What Event Changed The Republican Party Position On Civil Service Reform,

Source: https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/07/after-40-years-look-back-unlikely-passage-civil-service-reform/149458/

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