ABDELFATAH: He puts together a civil service reform bill that would come to be called the Pendleton Act. It did things like set up a test for all federal government job seekers.

The resignations amount to 6.7 per cent of the civilian federal workforce. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at ...

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is under scrutiny for a controversial deferred resignation programme through which more than 154,000 federal workers are being paid to resign ...

Federal agencies are now required to protect religious expression in the workplace, marking one of the most sweeping moves in ...

Trump also fired Hampton Dellinger, who until recently served as the special counsel of the United States, a role that investigates alleged violations of federal civil service protections and ...

Three federal civil service members, including a former Tampa federal prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump ...

Civil servants swear an oath to the Constitution, and are required to apply the laws of the United States as enacted by Congress. Their salaries are paid by all U.S. taxpayers.

ABDELFATAH: But when the Civil War happened, suddenly the federal government grew exponentially to support the war effort. And there were a lot more jobs to be filled via the spoils system.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: The federal government is the largest employer in the U.S., with just over 3 million civilian civil service workers.