Honoring Our Commitment to Public Service
Current and former federal employees,
This year, Public Service Recognition Week arrives during a time of deep uncertainty for the federal workforce. In seeking to reduce the size of government, recent policies undermine the expertise and independence of career civil servants and create an environment of instability. These efforts—targeting employee protections, weakening collective bargaining rights, and limiting the scope of merit-based hiring in addition to ending the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program—threaten to push out some of the best and brightest in public service.
At the Presidential Management Alumni Association (PMAA), we believe that public service is an honor. We see the hours that public servants of all kinds put in every day—not for your ego or for your bank account but for the American people that we took an oath to serve. By working for the federal government, we have the opportunity to contribute to something bigger than ourselves: a government that stands the test of time, including these seemingly unprecedented times.
You entered public service—for our alums, as a PMF or its predecessor Presidential Management Intern—to serve the American people with integrity and expertise. That mission has never been more critical or worthwhile.
Happy Public Service Recognition Week. Thank you for your service, thank you for your resilience, and thank you for showing what an effective, professional, and inspired government can look like. Be proud of the work you do. We are.
PMAA
Show public servants some love in the Partnership for Public Service’s #ISupportFeds campaign.
As we all work toward a more perfect union, we encourage you to reach out to your US Senators and Representatives about recent reforms affecting civil servants.
In particular, comments are being accepted through Friday, May 23, to the Office of Personnel Management’s proposed rule, Improving Performance, Accountability, and Responsiveness in the Civil Service, that seeks to reclassify certain civil service positions to Schedule Policy/Career (previously called Schedule F). While remaining career employees, they would be converted to at-will positions and lose civil service protections, such as notice of removal and the right to appeal if removed.