Carter Signs Civil Service Reform Act Creating SES and OPM

President Jimmy Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the largest overhaul of federal personnel law since the Pendleton Act. The law abolished the Civil Service Commission and split its functions among the Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. It also created the Senior Executive Service, a corps of roughly 9,200 top managers movable across agencies and subject to performance-based pay.