Before You Convert a Job, You Have to Understand It

The Audit Framework for Identifying Which Appointments Should Be Career Positions

Campaign Briefing: Decoupling Partisan Politics from Governance

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

March 26, 2026

I. Good Intentions Without Good Process Go Nowhere

Yesterday we described the goal: convert operational federal positions from political appointments to career civil service, where the work demands expertise rather than loyalty. Today we describe the method.

A reform without a rigorous process is not a reform. It is a talking point. The federal government is large, complex, and varied. A position that looks administrative on paper may carry genuine policy authority in practice. A role that appears technical may, in a specific agency, function as the primary interface with Congress or the public. These distinctions matter. You cannot convert positions wholesale. You have to look at each one honestly, apply a consistent standard, and show your work.

That is exactly what the audit framework is designed to do — and why we are describing it here, in plain language, for the public record. If this process cannot withstand scrutiny, it should not be done. We believe it can, and we are prepared to demonstrate that from the first day it begins.

II. Five Questions That Determine Whether a Position Belongs in Career Service

Every position flagged for potential conversion will be evaluated against five clear criteria. Each one has a plain answer. None of them requires political judgment to apply.

First: Does the law require this to be a presidential appointment? If a statute specifically mandates presidential appointment with Senate confirmation, conversion requires legislation. We note it, we work with Congress, but we do not act unilaterally. The law is the law, and this administration will follow it.

Second: Does the position set policy, or does it implement it? Policy-setting belongs to political leadership. Program management, budget administration, IT oversight, and human capital operations belong to career professionals. This is the most important distinction in the entire audit — and the one most frequently blurred in the current system.

Third: Does this position serve a representational function? If the role requires the occupant to speak for the administration to Congress, to the media, or to the public as a routine matter — that is a political role and it should remain one. Career employees serve the mission. They do not carry the political message.

Fourth: Does the role require deep sectoral expertise? If the answer is yes — if this position genuinely demands specialized technical, scientific, legal, or operational knowledge built over years of practice — then it should be a career position. No administration benefits from replacing that expertise with campaign loyalty. None. The people who depend on that

expertise certainly don't.

Fifth: Does a comparable career role already exist elsewhere in government? If it does, conversion is administratively straightforward. The pay scale exists. The performance framework exists. The precedent exists. We are not inventing something new — we are applying something that already works to positions where it hasn't been applied yet.

III. Who Conducts the Audit

The Office of Presidential Personnel, the Office of Management and Budget, and senior career executives within each relevant agency will jointly conduct the evaluation. The White House Policy Council will oversee standards of neutrality and consistency across departments.

Results will be published quarterly. The public will see the findings. Congress will see the findings. There will be no quiet list of conversions buried in administrative memos or executive footnotes. This is an open process because it must be trusted to hold — by the people who fund it, by the Congress that oversees it, and by the career professionals whose roles are affected by it.

IV. What Happens After the Audit

Positions identified as candidates for conversion will move through a staged transition. The timeline is realistic — eighteen months for initial implementation across the highest-priority departments — because we are not interested in disruption for its own sake. Disruption without purpose is not reform. It is chaos wearing reform's clothing.

Where statutory barriers exist, we work with Congress to remove them. Where interagency coordination is needed, we provide it. Where career employees move into positions formerly held by political appointees, they are supported with the resources and authority to do the job from day one.

V. Why the Method Matters as Much as the Goal

In carpentry, the measure matters as much as the cut. You can have the right piece of wood and the right intention and still wreck the joint if you measure carelessly. Government reform is no different. The goal is sound. The criteria are defensible. But if the process is sloppy, the result will be challenged, reversed, or simply ignored by the agencies it is meant to change.

This audit is not the most visible reform this campaign proposes. It will not make headlines the way a Cabinet announcement will. But it is the infrastructure on which everything else rests. A government staffed by people who earned their positions, evaluated by criteria that are public and consistent, and protected from political removal so long as they do their jobs well — that is a government that can be trusted.

The details are not in the way of the mission. The details are the mission.

Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN