❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Trump administration is restoring—in part—the Schedule F designation for federal workers, allowing the President to remove employees in permanent policy positions governed under the competitive service outside standard procedures and appeals.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald J. Trump, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), OPM Director Scott Kupor, and federal employees potentially affected by the rule.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The rule goes into effect on March 9, following its finalization this month.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Schedule Policy/Career restores a basic principle of democratic governance: those entrusted with shaping and executing policy must be accountable for results.” — OPM Director Scott Kupor
🎯IMPACT: The former Biden government implemented statutory roadblocks to Schedule F’s return, forcing the Trump administration to create workarounds, leading to a new designation with a few key differences from the original rule.
The Trump White House’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is finalizing a rule that will partially restore the Schedule F designation for federal workers in policy-influencing roles, allowing the President to remove or reassign them without the option to appeal under the labor statutes governing the career civil service. Titled “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” the new rule will take effect on March 9.
Briefly in effect in late 2020, before its repeal by former President Joe Biden in January of 2021, Schedule F will now be called a Schedule Policy/Career designation. According to OMP, the federal employment designation could affect an estimated 50,000 positions in the federal government.
“Schedule Policy/Career restores a basic principle of democratic governance: those entrusted with shaping and executing policy must be accountable for results,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said late Thursday. He added, “This rule preserves merit-based hiring, veterans’ preference, and whistleblower protections while ensuring senior career officials responsible for advancing President Trump’s agenda can be held to the same performance expectations that exist throughout much of the American workforce.”
The National Pulse reported in April of 2024 that officials in the former Biden government implemented statutory roadblocks to Schedule F’s return in an attempt to prevent President Trump from effectively staffing the executive branch with employees who support his agenda. These changes have forced the Trump administration to create workarounds, leading to a new designation with a few key differences from the original Schedule F rule.
Notably, according to OPM, “roles will remain career positions and continue to be filled through merit-based hiring procedures, including application of veterans’ preference, but will no longer be subject to the removal procedures that have made accountability for poor performance and misconduct exceedingly rare.” This is a key difference from the original Schedule F designation, which allowed the President to reclassify positions from the competitive service (career government workers) to the excepted service, which includes political appointees and is more akin to at-will employment.
The changes appear to be the direct result of the Biden rule, which prevents career federal employees from being redesignated as political appointees or other at-will workers.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
.jpg){kind=link}
