CIVIL-SERVICE ACT.1 AN ACT TO regulate and improve the civil service of the United Appointment of commissioners. Be 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 the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. Said commissioners shall hold no other official place under the United States. The President may remove any commissioner; and any commissioners. 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. Removal of Salaries and The commissioners shall each receive a salary of three traveling exthousand five hundred dollars a year. And each of said penses. commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a com missioner. missioners. SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners: Duties of comFirst. To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules shall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the depart 1 Definition.-Civil service is defined as the executive branch of the public service as distinguished from military, naval, legislative, and judicial. (Century Dictionary.) ments 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. "Where an act of Congress, establishing a general system, confers on the President the authority to do a specific act for the purpose of perfecting the means by which the system shall be carried into effect, the act of the President, when performed according to the terms of the statute, has all the validity and authority of the statute itself." (Opinion, Atty. Gen., Mar. 19, 1862, 10 Op., 469.) "There can be no doubt as to the power of Congress or any other legislative body to delegate to subordinate authorities the power to make rules and regulations within certain limits, which, when made, will have the force of law. * * * But if any rule prepared by this commission, whether published by the President or not, should have the effect of repealing or modifying an act of Congress, it would be an act of legislation and not a regulation of a mere executive character, which it was clearly the object of this law to authorize. It is a grave question whether Congress could delegate to the President, or to any board of commissioners jointly with the President, the authority to do any act which is equivalent to legislation." (Woods v. Gary, Postmaster General, Sup. Ct. D. C., Sept. 14, 1897, 25 W. L. R., 591. See also, Opinion of Justices, Feb. 24, 1885, 138 Mass., 601.) In a letter to the commission, of July 16, 1895, the President requested it to further a plan by which the Board of Commissioners for the District of Columbia may provide examinations for those seeking places under the District government so far as this may be done without thereby adding to the expenses of the commission. 66 In an Executive order of December 17, 1907, the President directed that upon the request of any Member of Congress the United States Civil Service Commission shall aid in testing the qualifications of applicants for designation for appointment in the United States Military or Naval Academies, so far as this may be done without thereby adding to the expenses of the commission." The United States Civil Service Commission is directed to render such assistance as may be practicable to the Porto Rican civil-service commission, created under the insular legislative act of March 14, 1907, and officers and employees in the Federal service in Porto Rico shall facilitate the holding of examinations and other work of the Porto Rican civil-service commission and render such other assistance as may be practicable. (Executive order, Sept. 27, 1907.) This order is similar to that signed by President McKinley on November 20, 1900, in regard to the Philippine service. Second. And among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows: Section 2 of the civil-service law merely directs what the rules to be promulgated by the President shall contain. They are not mandatory or absolute, for the statutory directions are only to be followed "as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant." A large discretion is, therefore, left to the President to modify the statutory directions if in his judgment such action should be required for the purposes of good administration. Nor are the statutory rules exclusive, for it is provided that " among other things the rules shall provide as set forth in the statute. (See Johnson v. United States (1905), 26 App. D. C., 128.) Competitive examinations. Thus the President is given wide power to supplement the statutory rules by others not specifically covered by the statute. As was said by Attorney General Knox (23 Op. Atty. Gen., 595, 597, Dec. 2, 1901): "Short of a purpose to break down this law or impose some arbitrary and unfair requirement which is inconsistent with the spirit of law in general (a supposition too absurd to be indulged), it is not too much to say that the determination of the contents of these rules rests almost wholly with the President himself." (Opinion Atty. Gen., of Mar. 24, 1916.) First, for open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classi fied or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and so far as may be shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed. Vacancies, how filled. Second, that all the offices, places, and employments so alle arranged, or to be arranged in classes, shall be filled by selections according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations. Third, appointments to the public service aforesaid in the departments at Washington shall be apportioned Apportionment. among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. Every application for an examination shall contain, among other things, a statement, under oath, setting forth his or her actual bona fide residence at the time of making the application, as well as how long he or she has been resident of such place. Fourth, that there shall be a period of probation before Probation. any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid. Application for examination. butions and serv Fifth, that no person in the public service is for that Political contrireason under any obligations to contribute to any political ice." fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so. Sixth, that no person in said service has any right to Coercion. use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body. examinations. Seventh, there shall be noncompetitive examinations in Noncompetitive all proper cases before the commission, when competent persons do not compete, after notice has been given of the existence of the vacancy, under such rules as may be prescribed by the commissioners as to the manner of giving notice. Notice of changes in serv Eighth, that notice shall be given in writing by the appointing power to said commission of the persons ice. selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the place of residence of such persons, of the rejection of any such persons after probation, of transfers, resignations, and removals, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said commission. rules. And any necessary exceptions from said eight funda- Exceptions mental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in con Regulations for examinations. nection with such rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual reports of the commission. Third. Said commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the President, make regulations for, and have control of, such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve Minutes of pro- the records of the same; and said commission shall keep minutes of its own proceedings. ceedings. Investigations. Annual report. Chief examiner. Fourth. Said commission may make investigations concerning the facts, and may report upon all matters touching the enforcement and effect of said rules and regulations, and concerning the action of any examiner or board of examiners hereinafter provided for, and its own subordinates, and those in the public service, in respect to the execution of this act. Fifth. Said commission shall make an annual report to the President for transmission to Congress, showing its own action, the rules and regulations, and the exceptions thereto in force, the practical effects thereof, and any suggestions it may approve for the more effectual accomplishment of the purposes of this act. SEC. 3. That said commission is authorized to employ a chief examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be, under its direction, to act with the examining boards, so far as practicable, whether at Washington or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity, and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. The chief examiner shall be entitled to receive a salary at the rate of three thousand dollars a year, and he shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty. The commission shall have a secretary, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary of one thousand six hundred dollars per annum. It may, Stenographer when necessary, employ a stenographer, and a messenger, and messenger. who shall be paid, when employed, the former at the rate Secretary. of one thousand six hundred dollars a year, and the latter at the rate of six hundred dollars a year. The commission shall, at Washington, and in one or more places in each State and Territory where examinations are to take Boards of ex- place, designate and select a suitable number of persons, not less than three, in the official service of the United States, residing in said State or Territory, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such persons serve, to be members of boards of examiners, and aminers. |