January 15, 2025

Heritage Foundation vets 20,000 appointees before 2025 election

Heritage Foundation picks officials before voters do

📋Public Policy🔐Ethics🏛️Government

Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 created a personnel database targeting 20,000 federal appointees—five times more than the traditional 4,000 political appointments. This unprecedented expansion replaces competitive merit-based hiring with ideological screening, ensuring donor-aligned loyalists control policy implementation.

Paul Dans (former OPM Chief of Staff) directed Project 2025 with Spencer Chretien (former Special Assistant to President) as associate director until Dans stepped down July 2024. Former White House personnel officials now run private vetting operations that bypass traditional government hiring.

John McEntee and James Bacon developed loyalty questionnaires in 2020 asking "What part of Candidate Trump's campaign message most appealed to you?" to screen government employees. Personnel vetting shifted from expertise-based evaluation to political loyalty tests.

Project 2025 operates with a $22 million budget and published a 920-page "Mandate for Leadership" policy playbook in April 2023. Conservative donors funded comprehensive government takeover plans years before elections.

Schedule F executive order (October 2020) attempted to reclassify 50,000 civil servants as at-will employees removable without cause, but Biden revoked it January 2021. Stripping civil service protections would let presidents fire career experts and replace them with political loyalists.

Presidential Transition Act (amended December 2022) requires pre-election transition planning, but does not mandate ideological vetting by private organizations. Project 2025 exploits this framework to insert ideological screening.

Candidates for Heritage Foundation's database answer questions like "Do you agree life has a right to legal protection from conception to natural death?" to test ideological purity. Policy positions on abortion and presidential authority determine hiring eligibility.

📋Public Policy🔐Ethics🏛️Government

Test Your Knowledge

Biden signed 17 executive actions on his first day in office in 2021, while Trump signed fewer than 5 executive orders in his entire first week in 2017. How does Project 2025's preparation change this dynamic for future Republican administrations?

Biden swore in roughly 1,000 political appointees via Zoom on inauguration day in 2021, while Trump had filled far fewer positions in his first weeks after taking office in 2017. How does this difference affect transition preparedness?

McEntee said the next administration can "play hardball more than we did with Congress." What techniques does political hardball use on lawmakers?

Project 2025 leaders promised to be a "wrecking ball for the administrative state." How does dismantling government institutions serve conservative ideology?

Russ Vought wrote Project 2025's executive power chapter and then implemented Schedule F reclassifying federal employees. How do ideological leaders execute their plans?

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People, bills, and sources

Paul Dans

Project 2025 Director (2022-2024)

Spencer Chretien

Project 2025 Associate Director

John McEntee

Former Presidential Personnel Office Director (2020-2021)

James Bacon

Personnel Office Deputy (2020)

Heritage Foundation

Conservative Think Tank

Partnership for Public Service

Nonpartisan Transition Organization

Center for American Progress

Liberal Think Tank

What you can do

Research presidential nominees' connections to Project 2025 or other pre-vetting organizations during Senate confirmation hearings. Visit senate.gov to find your senators' contact info; call 202-224-3121 and demand they ask nominees: "Were you vetted by Heritage Foundation? What questions were you asked? Who funded your vetting?" Track nominees through whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/nominations.

Distinguish legal transition planning (Presidential Transition Act requirements) from ideological loyalty screening (private organization vetting). Read presidentialtransition.org for nonpartisan transition standards; compare nominees' qualifications (experience, education, expertise) against ideological vetting questions; support legislation requiring disclosure of all private vetting relationships.

Monitor Schedule F revival attempts that would strip civil service protections from 50,000 career employees. Sign up for alerts from govexec.com and federalnewsnetwork.com covering federal workforce policy; contact representatives when Schedule F bills introduced; support civil service protections through Partnership for Public Service.

Demand transparency about think tank funding sources and donor network connections shaping personnel databases. Use opensecrets.org and followthemoney.org to trace Heritage Foundation donors; ask nominees: "Which donors funded your training or vetting?" Support disclosure requirements for all pre-appointment vetting.