Removals and reductions. SEC. 6. [Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat., 555).] That no person in the classified civil service of the United States shall be removed therefrom except for such cause as will promote the efficiency of said service and for reasons given in writing, and the person whose removal is sought shall have notice of the same and of any charges preferred against him, and be furnished with a copy thereof, and also be allowed a reasonable time for personally answering the same in writing; and affidavits in support thereof; but no examination of witnesses nor any trial or hearing shall be required except in the discretion of the officer making the removal; and copies of charges, notice of hearing, answer, reasons for removal, and of the order of the removal shall be made a part of the records of the proper department or office, as shall also the reasons for reduction in rank or compensation; and copies of the same shall be furnished to the person affected upon request, and the Civil Service Commission also shall, upon request, be furnished copies of the same: *The right * of persons employed in the civil service of the United States, either individually or collectively, to petition Congress, or any Member thereof, or to furnish information to either House of Congress, or to any committee or member thereof, shall not be denied or interfered with. Civil service rules in regard to removals in the classified service. (Executive order Dept. Cir. No. 34, August 5, 1914.) Effelency ratings. SEC. 4. [Act of August 23, 1912 (37 Stat., 413).] The Civil Service Commission shall, subject to the approval of the President, establish a system of efficiency ratings for the classified service in the several executive departments in the District of Columbia based upon records kept in each department and independent establishment with such frequency as to make them as nearly as possible records of fact. Such system shall provide a minimum rating of efficiency which must be attained by an employee before he may be promoted; it shall also provide a rating below which no employee may fall without being demoted; it shall further provide for a rating below which no employee may fall without being dismissed for inefficiency. All promotions, demotions, or dismissals shall be governed by provisions of the civilservice rules. Copies of all records of efficiency shall be furnished by the departments and independent establishments to the Civil Service Commission for record in accordance with the provisions of this section: Provided, That in the event of reductions being made in the force in any of the executive departments no honorably discharged soldier or sailor whose record in said department is rated good shall be discharged or dropped or reduced in rank or salary. Any person knowingly violating the provisions of this section shall be summarily removed from office, and may also upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year. Act of February 28, 1916 (39 Stat., 15), in part provides: "That hereafter the Division of Efficiency of the Civil Service Commission shall be an independent establishment and shall be known as the Bureau of Efficiency: And provided further, That the duties relating to efficiency ratings imposed upon the Civil Service Commission by section * 4 of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act approved August 23, 1912, and the duty of investigating the administrative needs of the service relating to personnel in the several executive departments and independent establishments, imposed on the Civil Service Commission by the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act approved March 4, 1913, are transferred to the Bureau of Efliciency." Employees to be paid from specific appropriations only-Civil officers, clerks, etc., elsewhere employed not to be detailed for duty in the District of Columbia. SEC. 4. [Act of August 5, 1882 (22 Stat., 255).] That no civil officer, clerk, draughtsman, copyist, messenger, assistant messenger, mechanic, watchman, laborer, or other employee shall after the first day of October next be employed in any of the executive departments, or subordinate bureaus or offices thereof at the seat of government, except only at such rates and in such numbers, respectively, as may be specifically appropriated for by Congress for such clerical and other personal services for each fiscal year; and no civil officer, clerk, draughtsman, copyist, messenger, assistant messenger, mechanic, watchman, laborer or other employee shall hereafter be employed at the seat of government in any executive department or subordinate bureau or office thereof, or be paid from any appropriation made for contingent expenses, or for any specific or general purpose, unless such employment is authorized and payment therefor specifically provided in the law granting the appropriation, and then only for services actually rendered in connection with and for the purposes of the appropriation from which payment is made, and at the rate of compensation usual and proper for such services, and after the first day of October next, section one hundred and seventy-two of the Revised Statutes, and all other laws and parts of laws, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and all laws and parts of laws authorizing the employment of officers, clerks, draughtsmen, copyists, messengers, assistant messengers, mechanics, watchmen, laborers or other employees at a different rate of pay or in excess of the numbers authorized by appropriations made by Congress, be, and they are hereby, repealed; and thereafter all details of civil officers, clerks, or other subordinate employees from places outside of the District of Columbia for duty within the District of Columbia, except temporary details for duty connected with their respective offices, be, and are hereby, prohibited; and thereafter all moneys accruing from lapsed salaries or from unused appropriations for salaries, shall be covered into the Treasury: Provided, That the sums herein specifically appropriated for clerical or other force heretofore paid for out of general or specific appropriations may be used by the several heads of departments to pay such force until the said several heads of departments shall have adjusted the said force in accordance with the provisions of this act; and such adjustment shall be effected before October first, eighteen hundred and eighty-two. And in making such adjustment the employees herein provided for shall, as far as may be consistent with the interests of the service, bo apportioned among the several States and Territories according to population: Provided further, That any person performing duty in any capacity as officer, clerk, or otherwise in any department at the date of the passage of this act, who has heretofore been paid from any appropriation made for contingent expenses or for any con tingent or general purpose, and whose office or place is specifically provided for herein, under the direction of the head of that department may be continued in such office, clerkship, or employment without a new appointment thereto, but shall be charged to the quotas of the several States and Territories from which they are respectively appointed and nothing herein shall be construed to repeal or modify section one hundred and sixty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States. It is provided in the same act (22 Stat., 230) that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from detailing one revenue agent for duty in his office. Section 166, R. S., amended by section 3, act of May 28, 1896 (29 Stat., 179), allowing temporary detail of clerks. Clerks can not be detailed to examine collectors' offices. (Collins's case, 3 Lawrence Dec., 241; 29 Int. Rev. Rec., 43.) When Congress appropriates a sum "in full compensation" of the salary of a public officer, the incumbent can not recover an additional sum in the Court of Claims, notwithstanding a prior statute fixes the salary at a larger amount than the sum so appropriated. (United States v. Fisher, 109 U. S., 143.) SEC 5. [Act of August 22, 1912 (37 Stat., 414).] That any person violating section four of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation Act approved August fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two (Statutes at Large, volume twenty-two, page two hundred and fiftyfive), shall be summarily removed from oflice, and may also upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year. Transfers and details. SEC. 5. [Act of June 22, 1906 (34 Stat., 389, 449).] It shall not be lawful hereafter for any clerk or other employee in the classified service in any of the Executive Departments to be transferred from one Department to another Department until such clerk or other employee shall have served for a term of three years in the Department from which he desires to be transferred. 27 Op. Atty. Gen., 421. Section 3, act of August 23, 1912 (37 Stat., 413), prohibits the transfer of any person from a position having a specific salary- provided by statute to any position with greater compensation which has been created under a lump sum appropriation. (19 Compt. Dec., 184.) Section 4, act of March 4, 1913 (37 Stat., 790), provides to the same effect. 66 That section five of the act of June twenty-second, nineteen hundred and six, prohibiting the transfer of employees from one executive department to another, shall apply with equal force and effect to the transfer of employees from executive departments to independent establishments and vice versa and to the transfer of employees from one independent establishment to another: Provided, That the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation shall be considered a Government establishment for the purposes of this section." SEC. 6. [Act of June 22, 1906 (34 Stat.. 389, 449).] Hereafter it shall be unlawful to detail civil officers, clerks, or other subordinate employees who are authorized or employed under or paid from appropriations made for the military or naval establishments, or any other branch of the public service outside of the District of Columbia, except those officers and employees whose details are now specially provided by law, for duty in any bureau, office, or other division of any Executive Department in the District of Columbia, except temporary details for duty connected with their respective offices. The provisions of this act with regard to transfer of clerks and employees are not applicable to the Philippine Commission or to the Isthmian Canal Commission. (26 Op. Atty. Gen., 209.) Details of employees. (Dept. Cir. No. 7, January 10, 1913.) SEC. 5. [Act of July 3, 1918 (40 Stat., 814).] That in expending appropriations made in this Act persons in the classified service at Washington, District of Columbia, shall not be detailed for service outside of the District of Columbia except for or in connection with work pertaining directly to the service at the seat of government of the department or other Government establishment from which the detail is made: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be deemed to apply to the investigation of any matter or the preparation, prosecution, or defense of any suit by the Department of Justice. Similar provision in act of March 3, 1917 (39 Stat., 1070). SEC. 6. [Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat., 345).] That section five of the act of June twenty-second, nineteen hundred and six, prohibiting the transfer of employees from one executive department to another, shall apply with equal force and effect to the transfer of employees from executive departments to independent establishments and vice versa and to the transfer of employees from one independent establishment to another: Provided, That the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation shall be considered a Government establishment for the purposes of this section. Section 5, act of June 22, 1906, page 696. SEC. 7. [Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat., 345).] That no civil employee in any of the executive departments or other Government establishments, or who has been employed therein within the period of one year next preceding his proposed employment in any other executive department or other Government establishment, shall be employed hereafter and paid from a lump-sum appropriation in any other executive department or other Government establishment at an increased rate of compensation. And no civil employee in any of the executive departments or other Government establishments or who has been employed therein within the period of one year next preceding his proposed employment in any other executive department or other Government establishment and who may be employed in another executive department or other Government establishment shall be granted an increase in compensation within the period of one year following such reemployment: Provided, That the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation shall be considered a Government establishment for the purposes of this section: Provided further, That this section shall not be construed to repeal section five of the act of Jure twenty-second, nineteen hundred and six, which prohibits the tran. :fer of employees from one department to another. Lump-sum appropriations. SEC. 4. [Act of March 4, 1913 (37 Stat., 739).] That section seven of the general deficiency appropriation act approved August twentysixth, nineteen hundred and twelve, is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 7. That no part of any money contained herein or hereafter appropriated in lump sum shall be available for the payment of personal services at a rate of compensation in excess of that paid for the same or similar services during the preceding fiscal year; nor shall any person employed at a specific salary be hereafter transferred and hereafter paid from a lump-sum appropriation a rate of compensation greater than such specific salary, and the heads of departments shall cause this provision to be enforced: Provided, That this section shall not apply to mechanics, artisans, their helpers and assistants, laborers, or any other employees whose duties are of similar character and required in carrying on the various manufacturing or constructing operations of the Government." SEC. 12. [Act of August 1, 1914 (38 Stat., 680).] That it shall not be lawful hereafter to pay to any person, employed in the service of the United States under any general or lump-sum appropriation, any sum additional to the regular compensation received for or attached to any employment held prior to an appointment or designation as acting for or instead of an occupant of any other office or employment. This provision shall not be construed as prohibiting regular and permanent appointments by promotion from lower to higher grades of employment. Transfers from specific salaries to lump-sum appropriation roll at increased compensation. (19 Comp. Dec., 789.) The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to use for, and in connection with, the enforcement of the laws relating to the Treasury Department and the several branches of the public service under its control, not exceeding at any one time four persons paid from the appropriation for the collection of customs, four persons paid from the appropriation for salaries and expenses of internal-revenue agents or from the appropriation for the foregoing purpose, and four persons paid from the appropriation for suppressing counterfeiting and other crimes, but not exceeding six persons so detailed shall be employed at any one time hereunder: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to deprive the Secretary of the Treasury from making any detail now otherwise authorized by existing law. Extract from sundry civil appropriation act for 1919. Act of July 1, 1918 (40 Stat., 642.) No salary for office not authorized. SEC. 1760. No money shall be paid from the Treasury to any person acting or assuming to act as an officer, civil, military, or naval, as salary in any office when the office is not authorized by some previously existing law, unless such office is subsequently sanctioned by law. Accepting voluntary service prohibited. ** * * And hereafter no [Act of May 1, 1884 (23 Stat., 17).] Department or officer of the United States shall accept voluntary service for the Government, or employ personal service in excess of that authorized by law, except in cases of sudden emergency involving the loss of human life or the destruction of property. Reproduced in section 3679, amended, p. 687. |