The Biden government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced a finalized rule on Thursday aimed at preventing the removal of career federal employees from policy-sensitive positions. Some see the move as a fail-safe against former President Donald Trump’s plans to reimplement his “Schedule F” policy to aggressively overhaul the federal workforce should he win re-election in November.
Under the new OPM rule, career federal employees can no longer be re-designated as political appointees or other at-will workers. Additionally, the rule clarifies a clause found in 5 U.S. Code § 7511, which exempts federal workers from government employment protections if their primary work is “confidential, policy determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” in nature. Under the new policy, the clause only applies to “noncareer, political appointments.”
This change is in direct response to an executive order issued by former President Trump, which created the Schedule F employment designation — allowing him to remove federal employees who actively worked to undermine his policy agenda. Schedule F was underpinned by the clause in 5 U.S. Code § 7511.
Preventing the reimplementation of Schedule F has been a priority of President Joe Biden, especially with November’s presidential election looming. During his first week in office, Biden revoked the policy and directed White House policymakers to examine actions that could be taken to prevent its return in the future. While a future Trump administration could re-institute his federal employment reforms, the new OPM rule would make it more difficult. The rule also outlines a specific process for re-designating a career federal worker, making any future attempts to use Schedule F more cumbersome.
