#GOOD NAMES FOR NEWSLETTERS ABOUT POLITICS AND ACTIVITIES FULL#

To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules s1Jall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modifications thereof into effect. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners:įIRST. And each of said commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a commissioner. The commissioners shall each receive a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars a year. The President may remove any commissioner and any vacancy in the position of commissioner shall be so filled by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of commissioners. Said commissioners shall hold no other official place under the United States. The law's scope has broadened over the years, however, and today it applies to most of the 2.9 million positions in the federal government.Īn act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States.īe it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of thc same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. When the Pendleton Act went into effect, its hiring reforms covered only 10 percent of the government’s 132,000 employees. Today many well-educated and well-trained professionals are federal employees. The Pendleton Act transformed the nature of public service. Additionally, federal jobs became more specialized and required special and specific skills due to industrialization. In Jackson’s time, there were approximately 20,000 federal employees. The rapid expansion of the federal bureaucracy emboldened job seekers to hound the president-elect. The term 'spoils system' derives from the phrase 'to the victor go the spoils.' The flaws and abuses in this system worsened as candidates required political appointees to spend ever more time and money on political activities.

#GOOD NAMES FOR NEWSLETTERS ABOUT POLITICS AND ACTIVITIES FULL#

By the time Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, the 'spoils system,' in which officials rewarded political friends and supporters with government positions, was in full force.

The Civil Service Commission was established to enforce this act.Īlthough President George Washington based most of his federal appointments on merit, subsequent presidents deviated from this policy.

The law further forbade requiring employees to give political service or contributions. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law. The Pendleton Act provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams. Arthur, who had become an ardent reformer after Garfield’s assassination. The act took its name from long-time reformer Senator George Hunt Pendleton of Ohio and was signed into law by President Chester A. Garfield by a disgruntled job seeker, Congress passed the Pendleton Act in January of 1883. Following the assassination of President James A.

Good names for newsletters about politics and activities