Policy Solutions
Smart public policy is needed to help promote and safeguard professional integrity. The following bipartisan legislation would help ensure that professionals in the federal sector are free to uphold standards and work solely in the interest of the American people.
Saving The Civil Service Act
The bipartisan Saving the Civil Service Act would safeguard the protections that ensure federal employees do not have to choose between maintaining their integrity and keeping their jobs. The bill would prevent federal competitive service positions from being reclassified outside of merit system principles without the express consent of Congress; limit the maximum number of conversions to the frozen excepted service schedule; and require that any federal employee who is converted provide consent for that conversion. Safeguarding the civil service ensures a fair, accountable, and merit-based federal workforce - not one filled with unlimited political appointees and clandestine political operatives.
Protect America’s Workforce Act
The bipartisan Protect America’s Workforce Act would reverse President Trump’s March 27, 2025 executive order that stripped the right to a voice on the job from approximately 67% of the federal workforce across multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, State, Veterans Affairs, Justice, and Energy, as well as certain employees in the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Agriculture. Federal employees at these agencies use collective bargaining to offer expertise and experience that improves processes, reduces waste, and generates efficiencies that benefit Americans without fear or retribution.
Scientific Integrity Act
The bipartisan Scientific Integrity Act would help safeguard professional integrity by establishing clear, enforceable integrity standards for federal agencies and federally-funded research. The bill would require federal agencies that fund or direct public science to establish and maintain clear scientific integrity principles, and it would strengthen and formalize these principles with the force of law. The bill would also clarify that federally-funded science must be free from inappropriate political, ideological or financial influence, and it would hold public scientists to the highest standards while guaranteeing their rights and protections under the law.