Federal Managers Association

In the News

• The MacGuffin of Schedule F - April 1, 2024

• FMA strongly opposes the reintroduction of Schedule F, or any system that would remove merit protections and politicize a greater portion of the government.
  
  Donald F. Kettl, Government Executive

  The unquestioned master of suspense, filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was especially fond of staging a MacGuffin, an element of the story that helped move the plot along but turned out to be insignificant to solving the case.

  Hitchcock fans—and count me at the top of the list—always admired his ability to drag us off the scent of the main issue by the clever ways he set up the plots of his films. All the better to scare us.

  And that’s just what’s happening now in the debate over Schedule F, the plan to make it easier to move large numbers of federal workers from the civil service to at-will employment. The plot is simple: increase accountability by making it possible to replace federal workers who don’t effectively implement the president’s policies. Conservative analysts are preparing to relaunch Schedule F on Day 1 of a new Trump presidency. 

  To read the full article, click here.

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