The Interior Department will not disclose which career staffers they have proposed to join a contentious new classification of employees who could be fired more easily.
Interior detailed the kind of civil servants who could be reclassified into the category known as “Schedule Policy/Career” in documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act. In a May letter to Office of Personnel Management acting Director Charles Ezell, a top Interior official said the covered jobs could include staffers who draft policies, supervise attorneys and work directly with officials in a position at the GS-13 level or above.
But Interior redacted an attached spreadsheet — blacking out 273 pages — that listed the positions under consideration to be moved into the new category, which would be stripped of civil service protections for federal jobs. Interior said that information is exempt from disclosure, considering the documents are “both predecisional and deliberative” and don’t represent agency policies or decisions.
In an April fact sheet about the new job category, the White House said the change will both allow agencies to more easily fire “poor performers,” as well as help ensure that the federal bureaucracy is implementing President Donald Trump’s agenda. But advocates for federal workers say the proposal could threaten the modern civil service system that maintains continuity and expertise within the government as different political parties assume power.
