An estimated 50,000 career government employees would be reclassified as ‘at-will’ employees held to new civil service regulations.
President Donald Trump announced on April 18 that he plans to implement a day-one executive order aimed at increasing accountability among the nation’s federal workforce.
Trump said on Truth Social that, according to his order, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will issue new civil service regulations for career government employees.
“Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance,” he said.
“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job.
“This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!”
On the same day, the OPM announced the proposed rule allowing certain federal policy-influencing positions to be reclassified “Schedule Policy/Career.”
“This rule aims to strengthen accountability among career federal employees while streamlining removals for misconduct or poor performance,” it said.
The proposed rule implements one of Trump’s day-one executive orders, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce.” This will revise an order from the end of his first term, which then referred to Schedule Policy/Career as “Schedule F.” That earlier order was rescinded by President Joe Biden. Trump vowed throughout his 2024 campaign to bring back Schedule F.
The new performance standards will be set by new civil service regulations, which were also released by the OPM on April 18.
The office affirmed that the new schedule and policy career roles would remain nonpartisan and merit-based.
Public feedback on the proposal will be received between April 23 and May 23.
The White House estimated that 50,000 government employees, roughly two percent of the entire federal workforce, would be moved into this new category once a final rule is issued. Lower-level employees, such as individual border patrol agents, will generally be exempt from this rule.
By T.J. Muscaro
