President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that reclassifies about 8,000 federal employee positions into a new employment category called Schedule Policy/Career, stripping them of long-standing civil service protections and making them easier to fire for any reason.
The move represents the culmination of an effort Trump launched during his first term to reshape the federal workforce. Approximately 97% of the affected positions are at or above the GS-15 level—the highest ranks of career civil service—and include leaders of agency divisions, regional offices, chief information officers, senior program managers, and policy-level officials, according to the White House.
Employees reclassified into Schedule Policy/Career will lose the ability to appeal disciplinary actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that has historically protected federal workers from arbitrary removal. They will also become ineligible for student loan repayment assistance and recruitment or retention incentives, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
The Trump administration framed the change as essential to accountability and ensuring the federal workforce carries out the president’s policy agenda. “It’s also about a restoration, in our mind, of the democratic process,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told reporters Wednesday. “In order to affect the policy priorities of the administration, we need to have people willing to and capable of carrying out those directives.”
However, the scope of Wednesday’s order is significantly smaller than initially proposed. The OPM estimated in April 2025 that Schedule Policy/Career could cover about 50,000 positions; some earlier analyses suggested as many as 200,000 could eventually be converted. An administration official said no additional positions are expected to be converted in the immediate future, though the president retains the discretion to add more at any time.
The reclassification drew sharp criticism from federal unions and government reform organizations. “This is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “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.”
A Precedent That Came and Went
Trump attempted a nearly identical effort during his first term. In October 2020, he issued an executive order creating Schedule F in the excepted service—a classification designed to convert career positions into at-will roles. The order went largely unimplemented before Trump left office, and President Biden rescinded it on January 22, 2021, just three days into his administration. Biden also issued regulations in 2024 designed to reinforce civil service protections and block any future resurrection of the policy. The Trump administration rescinded that 2024 rule and issued its own regulations on Schedule Policy/Career.
Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, argues that the narrower scope of this reclassification may be strategic. By starting with more defensible policy-making roles, the administration is “more likely to win in court,” he wrote in February. “Once they do, and the rule is cemented as law, they can always broaden its reach, deeper and deeper into the administration.” Moynihan predicts the issue will ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
The policy is already facing multiple lawsuits. Democracy Forward and other organizations have challenged it on grounds that it violates due process rights, exceeds presidential authority, and contradicts federal statute. The Trump administration maintains that the rule includes safeguards: it explicitly prohibits loyalty tests and political discrimination, and Schedule Policy/Career employees retain whistleblower protections under federal law, though enforcement of those protections now rests with agencies rather than independent review boards.
Agencies have seven days from Wednesday to update personnel records for affected employees. Following the OPM’s final rule in February, the administration estimated that over 40,000 public comments on the proposed regulation were received, with approximately 94% opposed.
Sources
- Federal News Network — detailed reporting on the executive order, reclassification scope, and affected position categories
- NPR — explanation of the policy’s scope, precedent, and expert analysis on politicization risks
- The White House — official fact sheet and executive order text describing the policy and its rationale
- The Washington Post — confirmation of the June 3, 2026 executive order and its effects on federal workers
