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Civil Service Commission

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The federal civil service is made up of individuals other than military personnel who are employed by the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of the federal government. The civil service is subdivided into the competitive service, the excepted service, and the Senior Executive Service.


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The United States Civil Service Commission was a government commission tasked with overseeing the merit-based selection system for federal civil service employees established under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The commission was later decentralized and replaced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.[1][2]

Background

Advisory Board of the Civil Service

The predecessor to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Advisory Board of the Civil Service, was established in 1871 under President Ulysses S. Grant, whose campaign platform included the elimination of patronage appointments in the federal civil service. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Grant's advisory board recommended the following actions to reform the civil service system:[1]

“
  • classification of all positions into groups according to the duties to be performed, and into grades for purposes of promotion.
  • competitive examinations for appointment to all positions within the lowest grade of each group
  • competition promotion examinations to fill positions in grades above the lowest
  • a 6-month probationary period following appointments
  • boards of examiners in each department to do the actual work of examining candidates and maintaining lists of qualified applicants[1][3]
 ”

The Advisory Board of the Civil Service was defunded by Congress in 1873 as a result of what the OPM describes as "the still strong forces favoring patronage" at the time.[1]

U.S. Civil Service Commission

The U.S. Civil Service Commission was established under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The commission was created to provide oversight for the newly-implemented merit selection system for federal civil service employees.[1][4]

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 later decentralized and replaced the U.S. Civil Service Commission with three separate agencies: the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to implement rules and oversee the management of the federal executive workforce, the Merit Systems Protection Board to process employment-related hearings and appeals, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority to establish guidelines and resolve issues related to collective bargaining.[5][2][6]

Structure

The U.S. Civil Service Commission was made up of three members, each appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. No more than two commissioners could be members of the same political party.[1]

The Pendleton Act also included the following structural provisions for the commission:[7]

“

The President may remove any commissioner; and any vacancy in the position of commissioner shall be so filled by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of commissioners.

The commissioners shall each receive a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars a year. And each of said commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a commissioner.[7][3]

”

Duties

According to the Pendleton Act, the U.S. Civil Service Commission was authorized to perform the following duties:[7]

  • Promulgate rules for the management of the civil service
  • Oversee the development and administration of the competitive examinations for the merit-based selection of civil servants
  • Maintain examination records and minutes of commission meetings
  • Investigate matters related to the enforcement of the rules promulgated by the commission
  • Provide an annual report to the president and Congress regarding the commission's activities[7]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "Our History," accessed October 5, 2017
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Westlaw, "Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA)," accessed October 5, 2017
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica, "Pendleton Civil Service Act," accessed September 29, 2017
  5. ↑ Office of Personnel Management, "Civil Service Reform Act of 1978," accessed September 30, 2017
  6. ↑ U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority, "The Statute," accessed September 30, 2017
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 OurDocuments.gov, "Transcript of Pendleton Act (1883)," accessed October 5, 2017
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