President Trump signed an executive order on June 3, 2026, reclassifying approximately 8,000 career federal employees into Schedule Policy/Career, a new employment classification that strips them of long-standing civil service protections and makes them at-will employees who can be fired without cause.
The new classification affects senior-level positions at or above the GS-15 pay grade, along with some GS-13 and GS-14 positions within the Office of Management and Budget. Approximately 97% of the affected positions are at the highest pay levels, according to a senior administration official. Affected roles include agency deputies, chiefs of staff, senior program managers, regulation writers, and officials involved in policy development and budget allocation.
Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told reporters that the policy aims to improve accountability and ensure federal employees carry out the president’s policy agenda. “What Schedule Policy/Career does is really nothing new,” Kupor said. “This is exactly the way the system worked for a very long time.” He added that the classification provides “a mechanism for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at-will” if their views interfere with their willingness to follow lawful orders.
Employees reclassified under Schedule Policy/Career will lose several critical protections. They cannot appeal adverse personnel actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, cannot challenge their initial reclassification, and lose eligibility for student loan repayment programs. Most reclassified employees will also become ineligible for recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives, according to Office of Personnel Management guidance published June 8.
The Trump administration initially estimated that Schedule Policy/Career could affect up to 50,000 federal positions when the rule was proposed in April 2025. Some earlier estimates had suggested as many as 200,000 positions could be converted. The final count of 8,000 is substantially lower, though administration officials indicated more positions may be added later at the president’s discretion.
The policy draws parallels to Trump’s first-term effort. In 2020, Trump issued an executive order creating Schedule F, a similar at-will classification for federal workers. That order went largely unimplemented and was quickly rescinded by the Biden administration in 2021. The Biden administration later issued regulations in 2024 attempting to reinforce civil service protections and block Schedule F from resurfacing. The Trump administration rescinded that 2024 rule and issued its own regulations on the renamed Schedule Policy/Career.
Federal unions and civil service advocates have sharply criticized the policy. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the move is “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons.” He warned that “workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out.”
Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman stated that the policy would “make it easier to purge experienced public servants.” She argued that “when government experts can be fired without cause, it’s not just federal workers who are harmed — it’s the people across the country who rely on these essential services every day.”
Multiple lawsuits have been filed challenging Schedule Policy/Career. Plaintiffs allege that the policy violates due process rights, exceeds presidential authority, and contradicts federal statute under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The Trump administration faces legal challenges from federal unions, civil service organizations, and other stakeholders.
Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland’s school of public policy, cautioned that the policy trades expertise for political responsiveness. “If you risk turning those positions over, you gain more political responsiveness at the cost of expertise that has accumulated,” Kettl said. He also warned that the 8,000 positions may be “just the beginning of a much broader set of conversions that may be coming down the line.”
Sources
- Federal News Network — executive order details, affected positions, civil service protections lost, union and expert commentary, prior Schedule F history
- Office of Personnel Management — implementation guidance, personnel policy changes, adverse action procedures, student loan and incentive eligibility
- NPR — executive order confirmation, at-will employment status
- GovExec.com — civil service protection removal, Merit Systems Protection Board appeal restrictions
- Reuters — executive order signing, employee salary ranges
- Time Magazine — at-will classification details, Schedule Policy/Career category
- Democracy Forward — civil service protection concerns, expert analysis
- American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — union response, whistleblower protection concerns, legal challenge filing
