Civil Service Reform is needed once again. The Pendleton Act of 1883. President Trump has been covering this topic in his latest speeches. Barr's hands were somewhat tied by the media. Everything is political these days - even after it goes through the courts. Clinesmith got his law license back. McCabe got his retirement pay restored. Jussie got released from jail. "Oh, it was a crazy story." Message 33758870 Wisdom from LindyBill Message 32920314 Who was Charles Guiteau?
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Approved on January 16, 1883, the Pendleton Act established a merit-based system of selecting government officials and supervising their work.
Following the assassination of President James A. Garfield by a disgruntled job seeker, Congress passed the Pendleton Act in January of 1883. The act took its name from long-time reformer Senator George Hunt Pendleton of Ohio and was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, who had become an ardent reformer after Garfield’s assassination.
The Pendleton Act provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law. The law further forbade requiring employees to give political service or contributions. The Civil Service Commission was established to enforce this act.
Although President George Washington based most of his federal appointments on merit, subsequent presidents deviated from this policy. By the time Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, the "spoils system," in which officials rewarded political friends and supporters with government positions, was in full force.
The term "spoils system" derives from the phrase "to the victor go the spoils." The flaws and abuses in this system worsened as candidates required political appointees to spend ever more time and money on political activities. The rapid expansion of the federal bureaucracy emboldened job seekers to hound the president-elect. In Jackson’s time, there were approximately 20,000 federal employees. By 1884, there were over 130,000. Additionally, federal jobs became more specialized and required special and specific skills due to industrialization.
The Pendleton Act transformed the nature of public service. Today many well-educated and well-trained professionals are federal employees. When the Pendleton Act went into effect, its hiring reforms covered only 10 percent of the government’s 132,000 employees. The law's scope has broadened over the years, however, and today it applies to most of the 2.9 million positions in the federal government. |
