Congresswoman Stansbury Votes to Protect Federal Workers from Political Interference and Support Good Government, Workers’ Rights
The Preventing a Patronage System Act will preserve merit-based civil service and protect over 20,000 federal workers across New Mexico.
WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) voted to pass the Preventing a Patronage System Act (H.R. 302) to protect the over 20,000 federal employees across New Mexico and civil servants across the United States from political interference in their jobs.
“Our civil servants selflessly serve this nation every day, delivering for our communities in education, defense, healthcare, veterans affairs, and countless other programs. We must maintain the integrity of the civil service and ensure it is based on the merit, skills, and dedication of our federal workers – and not their political connections,” said Rep. Stansbury. “Our civil servants the backbone of our democratic institutions. Today, I was proud to vote to pass the Preventing a Patronage System Act to protect the livelihoods and rights of millions of federal employees who have dedicated their lives to serving our country.”
In 2020, former President Trump issued a far-reaching executive order which stripped protections for federal government employees from political interference and politically-motivated hiring and firing practices. Though this executive order has since been nullified, the Preventing a Patronage System Act would protect the integrity of the civil service from future political manipulation. Rep. Stansbury’s vote to protect federal workers across New Mexico and the nation is part of her wider legislative work to support good government and protect our American democracy, including the Protecting our Democracy Act (H.R. 5314), the Freedom to Vote Act (S.B. 2747), and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4).
The Preventing a Patronage System Act would:
- Protect civil service rights and prevent federal employees from losing statutory and job protections
- Prevent any position in the competitive federal service from being reclassified to an excepted service schedule created after September 30, 2020
- Limit federal employee reclassifications to the five excepted service schedules in use prior to fiscal year 2021
- Protect the federal service system from political manipulation by codifying which federal employees can be hired or removed from their positions without due process.
The full text of the Preventing a Patronage System Act (H.R. 302) is available here.