Kaine Applauds Rule to Protect Merit-Based Federal Workforce System

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine applauded the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for taking a first step to better protect the merit-based federal workforce system and safeguard federal employees from losing due process rights:

“From protecting national security to inspecting food to ensure it’s free of disease, federal workers do critical work to serve the American people. Every American benefits from having federal workers who are hired on the basis of their qualifications, not politics. I’m glad to see the Administration is taking action to safeguard our merit-based hiring system. I’ll continue pushing for my Saving the Civil Service Act to codify these protections into law.”

The federal workforce is comprised of roughly 2 million federal employees, including over 170,000 in Virginia, who are hired based on their acumen. They work each day for the American people and serve in a myriad of capacities, including researching vaccines to help save lives, helping families in the wake of hurricanes and deadly fires, and administering Social Security and veterans benefits.

Kaine has introduced legislation that would prevent future administrations from creating new employee classifications in order to hire more political loyalists and fire experts. Kaine filed his bill as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2023 and 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

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