On June 4, 2025, the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) submitted comments to the Office of Personnel Management strongly opposing the proposed rule “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” which would move policy-influencing positions to Schedule Policy/Career. EPN calls it an unlawful attempt to strip civil service protections from over half of federal employees. EPN argues the proposal misinterprets statutory terms, lacks evidence of widespread poor performance or resistance, and would undermine expertise, chill the delivery of honest advice, politicize federal roles, and harm recruitment and retention. EPN urges the proposal’s full rejection.
View the appendices:
Appendix A: Examining Claims of EPA Bureaucratic Resistance During the Reagan Administration