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Trump revives Schedule F to make senior federal jobs at-will

Trump revives Schedule F to make senior federal jobs at-will

Rule Changes

An executive order moves about 8,000 senior policy positions into a category with no firing appeals

Yesterday: Trump moves 8,000 into the new category

Overview

About 8,000 senior federal workers woke up on June 3 with a different job than the one they had the day before. President Trump signed an order moving them into a new category, Schedule Policy/Career, that lets agencies fire them without the usual process.

These are mostly the government's top career staff. Office directors, regional chiefs, agency lawyers, and the people who write regulations. They keep their nonpartisan status and whistleblower rights. They lose the right to appeal a firing or demotion.

Why it matters

If the rule holds, the senior staff who write regulations and run federal programs can be fired at will, changing who keeps a government job and why.

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Key Indicators

~8,000
Positions reclassified
Senior career roles moved into Schedule Policy/Career by the June 3 order.
97%
At GS-15 or above
Share of affected jobs at the top General Schedule grade or senior leadership.
~50,000
Potential future scope
Positions the Office of Personnel Management has said could eventually be reclassified.
143 years
Since the Pendleton Act
The 1883 law built the merit-based civil service this rule revisits.
7 days
To update records
Time agencies have to change affected employees' personnel files.

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People Involved

Organizations Involved

Timeline

October 2020 June 2026

6 events Latest: Yesterday
Tap a bar to jump to that date
  1. Trump moves 8,000 into the new category

    Latest Executive Action

    An executive order converts about 8,000 senior positions, 97% at GS-15 or above, into at-will jobs. Agencies get seven days to update records.

  2. Final rule revives the category

    Rule Change

    OPM finalizes Schedule Policy/Career, undoing the 2024 protections and clearing the way to reclassify policy-influencing jobs.

  3. OPM builds a firewall

    Rule Change

    The Office of Personnel Management issues a regulation designed to make any future Schedule F revival harder.

  4. Biden rescinds the order

    Rule Change

    The incoming administration cancels Schedule F before any positions are converted.

  5. Trump first creates Schedule F

    Rule Change

    An executive order creates a new category stripping protections from policy-related career jobs. It never takes effect before the election.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

January 1883

The Pendleton Act (1883)

A disappointed office-seeker shot President James Garfield in 1881, and he died months later. Congress responded with the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which based federal hiring on merit exams instead of political loyalty. It ended the era when each new president handed government jobs to supporters.

Then

A new Civil Service Commission began testing and protecting a slice of federal jobs from political firing.

Now

Merit protection spread to most of the workforce and became the foundation of the modern career civil service.

Why this matters now

Schedule Policy/Career revisits the line the Pendleton Act drew between career staff and political appointees. The fight is over which side of that line senior policy jobs fall on.

October 2020 to January 2021

The original Schedule F order (2020)

Trump signed an order in October 2020 creating Schedule F to strip protections from policy roles. Agencies began identifying positions, but he lost the election before any worker was moved. Biden rescinded the order days after taking office.

Then

No positions were converted, and the category sat dormant for four years.

Now

It became a blueprint. OPM wrote a 2024 rule to block its revival, which the 2026 rule then undid.

Why this matters now

The 2026 order finishes what 2020 started. The difference is timing: this time it lands early in a term, with years to carry it out and defend it in court.

Sources

(6)