Timeline:

• February 5, 2026: OPM published the final version of their proposed regulation to create the “Schedule Policy/Career” designation for federal employees. This change will allow the Trump administration to reclassify about 50,000 federal employees, or 2% of the federal workforce, under a new category where agencies could “swiftly remove employees…without lengthy procedural hurdles” for reasons including “subversion of presidential directives.” The final rule does not direct which positions will be moved to the new classification; rather, according to OPM guidance, agencies identify positions to reclassify to OPM, which will review and make a recommendation to the President. President Trump would then need to issue a separate Executive Order designating those positions as reclassified under  Schedule Policy/Career. EPI submitted public comments opposing this rule in May 2025.
• April 18, 2025: Office of Personnel Management proposes rule to establish new designation to make it easier to fire government employees who are determined to “refuse to advance the policy interests of the president.”
• January 22, 2025: White House issues Executive Order on Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce

President Trump issued an executive order indicating he will overturn regulations to clear the way for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages civil service (non-elected, non-military) employees of the federal government, to reinstate an employee classification known as Schedule F. The first Trump administration created the Schedule F designation in order to make it easier to fire federal workers in jobs that are normally apolitical, and therefore have civil service protections in their job. The Biden administration established protections to limit the use of this designation. By reinstating Schedule F, President Trump would be able to fire federal workers he deems disloyal, shifting the work of government away from the public interest and toward the president’s interests.   Under Schedule F, significant numbers of federal employees – who live and work across every U.S. state and territory – could be vulnerable to political attack, retaliatory termination, or termination without cause in order to fast-track hiring civil servants with certain political or ideological preferences.