President Donald Trump on Wednesday formally advanced a long-sought effort to make it easier to remove senior federal employees involved in policymaking, arguing the change will help ensure government agencies are responsive to elected leadership and the American people.
Trump signed an executive order implementing Schedule Policy/Career, or Schedule P/C, a new employment classification that places certain career federal workers into positions that can be hired and removed in a manner similar to political appointees.
The policy is a revival of the first Trump administration’s Schedule F initiative and is expected to affect roughly 8,000 federal employees.
According to the White House, the move is designed to address longstanding difficulties in removing federal workers accused of poor performance or misconduct.
The executive order states that employees placed into the new category would be “exempted from the adverse action procedures that make removals for poor performance or misconduct so difficult.”
The administration argued that some high-ranking career officials have remained in influential government positions despite poor performance or resistance to implementing presidential policies.
“Consequently, employees with significant policy-making responsibilities can stay in their jobs for years even if they perform poorly, engage in misconduct, or are unwilling to advance Presidential policy across administrations, making their agencies less capable of delivering for the American people,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
The administration described the reclassified positions as “at-will positions.”
Most of the employees expected to be affected occupy some of the highest-ranking career positions in government. According to the White House, approximately 97 percent of workers likely to be reclassified hold GS-15 positions, the highest level on the federal pay scale.
Supporters of the change argue it will strengthen accountability within the federal bureaucracy by ensuring policymakers can more effectively carry out the agenda voters elected them to implement.
The White House also sought to reassure critics that political affiliation would not determine employment decisions.
“These remain ‘career’ positions and the non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other aspects of these roles will not change,” the administration said.
“Removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation,” the fact sheet added.
Federal employee unions criticized the move, arguing it weakens longstanding civil service protections.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the order “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons.”
Kelley argued that workers could become reluctant to report wrongdoing if they fear losing their jobs.
“Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out,” Kelley said.
The administration’s action comes amid a debate over the role and accountability of the federal bureaucracy.
The modern merit-based civil service system was established in 1883, replacing an earlier patronage system that often distributed government jobs based on political loyalty.
The Trump administration finalized the rule creating Schedule P/C in February, but the policy remains the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by federal employee unions.
Those lawsuits contend the new classification violates the Civil Service Reform Act by removing protections guaranteed under federal law and weakening the merit-based hiring system.
The administration, however, maintains that the policy targets only employees with substantial policymaking authority and is intended to improve government performance rather than alter the nonpartisan nature of career civil service positions.