Mike Causey is on vacation this week. While he’s gone, he asked some guest columnists to fill in. Enjoy!

Many believe that the ongoing assault on federal employees by the Congress, mostly from the GOP, (which I think stands for Grand Old People), started with the rise of the tea party. Not necessarily so.

A bit of history: shortly after President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he appointed a University of Maryland professor, Donald J. Devine, to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management. The Washington Post labeled Donald Devine as Ronald Reagan’s “terrible swift sword of the civil service,” when he served as OPM director during President Reagan’s first term. To say that Devine didn’t like civil servants is like saying Donald Duck didn’t like chipmunks. Unlike Donald Duck maniacally chasing Chip and Dale, however, the Devine era wasn’t all that funny, although to the professor’s credit he at least wore pants.

Thus, the atmosphere at OPM and throughout the civil service during those days was a bit poisonous. The message from the administration was since government is the problem not the solution, the natural corollary should be that government workers should be also be despised. And indeed they were by Devine and his minions. The contempt for federal employees was palpable as you walked the corridors of OPM, or worse had to meet with a political appointee. That animus radiated outside the walls of OPM, into the larger civil service and soon leeched into some of the body politic.

That corrosive period ended in the summer of 1985. When Director Devine’s appointment came up for renewal, he believed he could not be reconfirmed by the Senate and withdrew his name. So, the Devine era was over, and things did get better for a while. It seemed that the Reagan administration, evidenced by its subsequent appointments to the directorship of OPM, was backing off its vilification of civil servants. Those post-Devine directors appeared not to reflexively disdain federal employees, and indeed, some seemed to have some respect and even good feelings about feds. That era of good feeling persisted throughout the following Bush administration (President George H.W. Bush, that is).

Still, the damage was done. Federal service began its descent to total unattractiveness over 30 years ago when a judge decreed that the Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE) should be scrapped. The Reagan administration decided not to appeal because maybe it didn’t care whether the government hired legions of smart people. That decision began the decline in government competence, most acutely felt in key areas such as personnel, budget and other administrative functions, and eventually in the managerial and executive ranks. The result was that the type of college graduate the federal government hitherto had found most desirable was largely unavailable to it. Many college grads who could’ve passed the PACE with flying colors became uninterested in a government career. Also, the removal of the exam complicated the hiring process. To this day, the path from application to job offer remains long and confusing, further discouraging applicants. The assault on federal employees (mainly Republican, with Democratic acquiescence) has reignited in the last five years and should give anyone pause who contemplates a career in government. — John Elliot

Nearly Useless Factoid:

By Michael O’Connell

Founding Father Ben Franklin was named for his Uncle Benjamin.

Source: BenFranklin300.org

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