US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that changes job protections for some federal employees working on policy-related roles. The order removes job security protections from nearly 8,000 federal positions, Bloomberg reported. These workers can be fired more easily if they do not carry out or support the president’s policy decisions.
The original estimate from the Office of Personnel Management was much higher, saying up to 50,000 federal employees could fall under the new classification. This meant roughly 2% of the federal workforce would have been moved into the new category that now allows at-will firing.
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Who comes under the new rules
The order mainly applies to senior-level federal staff, mostly at GS-15 and above, the highest level in the federal pay system. These roles include senior officials in agencies, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, regional office heads, and top policy, budget, human resources, grant, and public affairs staff. Some positions in the Office of Management and Budget also fall under this change.
These jobs will now fall under a new classification called “Schedule Policy/Career.”
What changes for employees
Workers placed in this category lose several civil service protections. They can be fired more easily, and they also lose the right to appeal their dismissal to an independent review body in many cases.
The administration designed the change to give the president more direct control over senior policy execution roles.
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Government’s position
The administration says the change improves accountability in government. A federal rule cited in a February CNN report says that agencies often struggle to remove employees for poor performance or misconduct. It argues that the new system will allow faster removal of staff who do not perform their duties or who resist presidential directives.
Scott Kupor, who leads the Office of Personnel Management, says senior policy officials must actively implement the president’s agenda because voters elect that leadership.
“From our perspective, this is very much about accountability,” he told Bloomberg. “In order to affect the policy priorities of the administration, we need to have people who are in these senior policy making decisions willing to and capable of obviously carrying out those directives.”
He also says the order does not introduce political loyalty tests. “There are zero loyalty tests in this,” Kupor said. “There is no interference with normal whistleblower protections either.”
Concerns
Federal employee unions strongly oppose the order. American Federation of Government Employees argues that the policy weakens the merit-based civil service system and opens the door to politically driven hiring and firing.
Public policy groups also raise concerns. They warn that the change could reduce independence in the federal workforce and allow political considerations to influence career government roles.
Background
The policy draws on provisions in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which allows certain positions to be exempt from standard job protections if they involve policy-making or policy advocacy.
A similar effort during Trump’s first term, known as “Schedule F,” aimed to reclassify federal employees but did not take full effect before the end of his presidency.
(With Bloomberg inputs)