# Plain Language Summary: PPSA Act of 2021

This bill is about how federal government jobs get filled and who gets hired. Right now, the government has two types of job positions: "competitive service" jobs that require open competition where anyone can apply, and "excepted service" jobs that can be filled without that competitive process. This bill tries to prevent what its sponsors see as a "patronage system"—basically, the practice of giving government jobs to political allies or supporters rather than the most qualified candidates.

The bill does two main things. First, it says that if a competitive service job is going to be removed from the competitive hiring process, it can only be done in very specific, limited ways that were already allowed as of September 2020. In other words, it freezes the rules so that no new exceptions can be created beyond what already existed. Second, it prevents jobs that are already in the "excepted service" from being moved into different categories of exceptions. The goal is to stop the practice of reclassifying jobs to make it easier to hire people without going through the normal competitive application and interview process.

For most regular citizens, this mainly affects federal employees and people looking for federal jobs. If you're applying for a government position, this bill would make it more likely that the job will go through a fair, open competition rather than being filled through a more closed process. For current federal employees, it could protect job security by making it harder to reclassify their positions in ways that might make them vulnerable to being replaced for political reasons. However, the practical impact depends on whether this bill actually becomes law and how strictly it gets enforced.

PPSA Act of 2021

Connolly, Gerald E.

Preventing a Patronage System Act or the PPSA Act This bill prohibits executive agency positions in the competitive service from being placed in the excepted service, unless such positions are placed in Schedules A through E as in effect on September 30, 2020. The bill also prohibits positions in the excepted service from being placed in any schedule other than the aforementioned schedules. On October 21, 2020, the President issued an executive order titled Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service. The order places executive agency positions that are of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character, and that are not normally subject to change as a result of a presidential transition, under a new schedule in the excepted service (Schedule F) instead of the competitive service. The order also requires any such positions in the excepted service to be reclassified to Schedule F.