Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Creates New Federal Employee Category to Enhance Accountability

Fact Sheets

TLDR

This is a “fact” sheet for an executive order that creates a new “Schedule Policy/Career” classification for approximately 50,000 federal employees (2% of workforce) in policy-influencing positions, making them at-will employees without traditional civil service protections. While these remain career positions filled through merit-based processes, employees can be removed without the usual adverse action procedures or appeals. The administration argues this will increase accountability for poor performance, misconduct, and policy subversion, while critics worry it could politicize the civil service by enabling politically-motivated dismissals. The rule overturns Biden-era regulations and will be implemented via a subsequent executive order after finalization.

This is a “fact” sheet for a rule proposed by the Trump administration, through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to implement an executive action aimed at increasing accountability for federal employees in policy-influencing positions. The new classification, “Schedule Policy/Career,” would make these employees at-will, removing their access to traditional adverse action procedures and appeals, with the goal of enabling agencies to swiftly address poor performance, misconduct, or subversion of presidential directives. The Federal Fegister notice has been included in the “fact” sheet.

Key provisions include:

  • Creation of Schedule Policy/Career: A new category for career federal employees with policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties. These positions remain career (not political) and are filled through existing nonpartisan, merit-based hiring processes.

  • At-Will Employment: Employees in Schedule Policy/Career serve at-will, meaning they can be removed without the lengthy adverse action procedures or appeals currently required under federal law. This overturns Biden-era regulations that provided greater job protections for these roles.

  • Scope and Exclusions: The rule targets approximately 50,000 positions (about 2% of the federal workforce) but generally excludes line employees such as Border Patrol agents or wage and hour inspectors.

  • Implementation: The proposed rule does not immediately move employees into Schedule Policy/Career; this will occur via a subsequent executive order after the rule is finalized.

  • Retention of Competitive Status: Employees moved into Schedule Policy/Career retain their competitive status, and appointments remain nonpartisan. There is no requirement for personal or political loyalty to the President, only a duty to faithfully implement the law and administration policies.

Rationale and justification:

  • Accountability Issues: The administration cites longstanding problems with the federal workforce, including difficulty removing poor performers and a perception that agencies do not hold employees accountable. Surveys show most federal managers lack confidence in their ability to remove employees for misconduct or poor performance.

  • Examples of Misconduct: The order references recent audits (e.g., at the FDIC) and incidents where senior employees engaged in misconduct with little or no disciplinary consequence, attributing this to the cumbersome removal process.

  • Policy Subversion: The administration argues that some career employees use job protections to oppose or undermine presidential policies, citing instances where federal employees refused to implement administration directives or publicly criticized presidential appointees.

The changes to Excepted Service (5 CFR 213) introduce a new Schedule Policy/Career category for policy-influencing career positions while providing clarification on status distinctions within the service.

For the Competitive Service (5 CFR 212), the modifications ensure that employees maintain their competitive status even when transferred to positions within the excepted service.

Regarding Adverse Actions (5 CFR 752), the new regulations explicitly exclude Schedule Policy/Career employees from the established adverse action procedures and subsequent appeals processes.

Similarly, in Performance Actions (5 CFR 432), the changes remove procedural protections that would otherwise be available to Schedule Policy/Career employees.

The Definitions section (5 CFR 210) has been revised to incorporate and reflect the new rules governing policy-influencing positions within the federal service.

Finally, the Appointment Procedures (5 CFR 302) have been modified to eliminate procedural requirements previously necessary when moving positions into the newly established Schedule Policy/Career category.

The “fact” sheet makes numerous claims:

Claim: The rule will improve accountability and responsiveness.
Reality: While the rule would make it easier to remove policy-influencing employees, it also removes significant due process protections. This could make federal employees more vulnerable to politically motivated dismissals, undermining the merit-based, nonpartisan nature of the civil service. The claim that this will “strengthen democracy” is debatable, as it may actually weaken the independence of career officials who are meant to serve administrations of either party.

Claim: Current procedures make it nearly impossible to remove poor performers.
Reality: It is true that federal removal procedures are lengthy and complex, but this is by design to protect against arbitrary or politically motivated firings. The cited statistics reflect frustration with the process, but do not necessarily prove that the majority of policy-influencing employees are poor performers or subversive.

Claim: The rule targets only policy-influencing positions and not line workers.
Reality: The proposal does specify that line workers are generally excluded. However, the definition of “policy-influencing” is broad and could be interpreted expansively, potentially sweeping in a wide range of roles beyond those intended.

Claim: Employees will not be required to support the President personally or politically.
Reality: While the rule states this, the removal of due process protections for employees who disagree with administration policies in good faith could create a chilling effect, discouraging dissent or honest advice from career professionals.

Claim: The rule restores historical precedent.
Reality: The executive order notes that prior to the 1960s, federal employees lacked appeal rights. However, modern civil service protections were established precisely to prevent abuses of the spoils system and ensure a professional, stable government workforce.

The executive order and proposed OPM rule aim to make it easier to remove federal employees in policy-influencing positions by reclassifying them as at-will employees, stripping away many traditional job protections. While the stated goal is greater accountability, the changes risk politicizing the career civil service and undermining its independence. The broad definition of “policy-influencing” and removal of due process protections could have far-reaching consequences for the functioning and impartiality of the federal government.

RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE: Today, President Donald J. Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) took action to implement President Trump’s Executive Action titled “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce.”

  • OPM proposed a rule to amend the civil service regulations to include Schedule Policy/Career for career employees with important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties.
    • These employees will serve as at-will employees, without access to cumbersome adverse action procedures or appeals, overturning Biden Administration regulations that protected poor performing employees.
    • Line federal employees who implement those policies, like Border Patrol agents or wage and hour inspectors, will generally be excluded.
  • This rule empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.
  • Schedule Policy/Career positions remain career positions, filled through existing nonpartisan, merit-based hiring processes.
    • These employees will keep their competitive status and are not required to personally or politically support the President, but must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies.
  • OPM estimates 50,000 positions will ultimately be moved into Schedule Policy/Career, approximately 2% of the Federal workforce.
    • The proposed rule does not directly move positions into Schedule Policy/Career. That will be done by a subsequent executive order after a final rule issues.

FIXING A BROKEN SYSTEM: The proposed rule tackles systemic issues in federal workforce accountability, addressing unaccountable, policy-determining federal employees who put their own interests ahead of the American people’s.

  • Federal employees report their agencies do not hold employees accountable:
    • The Merit Principles Survey shows less than a quarter of federal employees believe their agencies address poor performers effectively.
    • When asked what typically happens to poor performers in their work unit, federal employees’ most common response is they “remain in the work unit and continue to underperform.”
  • This happens because the process for removing federal employees is lengthy and difficult:
    • The Government Accountability Office reports it takes 6 months to a year to remove poor performers, even before appeals.
    • Only two-fifths of federal managers are confident they could remove employees who committed serious misconduct.
    • Just one-quarter believe they could remove an employee for poor performance in a critical element of their job.
  • Unaccountability allows corruption to fester in agencies:
    • For example, a recent audit of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) found widespread misconduct by senior leaders, such as male supervisors pressuring female subordinates for sexual favors in exchange for career assistance.
    • The FDIC almost never seriously disciplined employees for such corrupt behavior. Not a single complaint to the agency’s Anti-Harassment program resulted in a removal, or even a demotion.
    • The auditors found the FDIC tolerated misconduct because the removal process was too difficult to use.
  • Some bureaucrats also use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences:
    • Recent polling asked senior federal employees in Washington, D.C., what they would do if the President gave them a lawful order they considered bad policy. A plurality said they would ignore the order and do what they thought best.
    • During the first Trump administration career attorneys in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division would not assist in litigation charging Yale University with racially discriminating against Asian and Caucasian  applicants.
    • In the President’s first term, career employees in the Department of Education would not constructively assist in drafting major rules like the Title IX rules.
    • An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administrative judge (AJ) recently sent an agency-wide email stating that the agency’s Acting Chair (who was appointed by President Trump) was “not fit to be our chair much less hold a license to practice law” and that the AJ would not implement President Trump’s Executive Orders.
  • Unaccountable bureaucracy undermines democracy. For the government to be accountable to the American people, elected officials must be able to hold policy-determining and policy-making career employees accountable for their performance and conduct.

DRAINING THE SWAMP: President Trump is delivering on his promise to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our government from Washington corruption.

  • In his first term, President Trump signed an Executive Order to reclassify certain federal workers in policy-related roles as “Schedule F” employees, enabling swift accountability for those in influential positions.
  • When President Biden took office, he revoked this Executive Order, reinstating protections that shielded unaccountable bureaucrats.

President Trump vowed on the campaign trail to reinstate this Executive Order, a promise he kept on his first day returning to office.

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

5 CFR Parts 210, 212, 213, 302, 432, 451, and 752

[Docket ID: OPM-2025-0004]
RIN: 3206-AO80

Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service

AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management
ACTION: Proposed rule

SUMMARY

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduct. The proposed rule lets policy-influencing positions be moved into Schedule Policy/Career. These positions will remain career jobs filled on a nonpartisan basis. Yet they will be at-will positions excepted from adverse action procedures or appeals. This will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or undermine the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.

DATES

Comments must be received on or before [INSERT DATE 30 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER].

ADDRESSES

You may submit comments, identified by the docket number or Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) for this proposed rulemaking, by the following method:

All submissions must include the agency name and docket number or RIN for this rulemaking. Please arrange and identify your comments on the regulatory text by subpart and section number; if your comments relate to the supplementary information, please refer to the heading and page number. All comments received will be posted without change, including any personal information provided. To ensure that your comments will be considered, you must submit them within the specified open comment period. Before finalizing this rule, OPM will consider all comments within the scope of the regulations received on or before the closing date for comments. OPM may make changes to the final rule after considering the comments received.

As required by 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4), a summary of this rule may be found in the docket for this rulemaking at www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

Noah Peters, Senior Advisor to the Director
Email: employeeaccountability@opm.gov
Phone: (202) 606-2930

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

OPM proposes this rule to strengthen employee accountability and the democratic responsiveness of American government, while addressing longstanding performance management challenges in the Federal workforce.

Chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code (chapter 75) requires most agencies to follow specific procedures to take “adverse actions” against employees for misconduct or poor performance—these actions include principally removals, suspensions, or reductions in pay or grade. Most agencies take performance-based adverse actions following procedures set forth in chapter 43 of title 5 (chapter 43). Whether taken under chapter 75 or chapter 43 procedures, employees can appeal such adverse or performance-based actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and, if unsuccessful, to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

As described below, decades of experience have shown that chapter 43 and 75 procedures make it very difficult for agencies to hold employees accountable for their performance or conduct. The processes are time-consuming and difficult, and removals are not infrequently subject to a protracted appeal process with an uncertain outcome. Surveys show few agency supervisors believe they could dismiss subordinates for serious misconduct or unacceptable performance. This dynamic undermines Federal merit system principles, which call for employees to maintain high standards of conduct and for agencies to separate employees who cannot or will not improve their performance to meet required standards.

The adverse action procedures and appeals that make it difficult for agency leadership to hold employees accountable also empower career employees to insert partisan or personal preferences into their official duties. While most Federal employees nonetheless faithfully perform their jobs, some do not. As discussed in greater detail later in this proposed rulemaking, it is well documented that many career federal employees use their positions to advance their personal political or policy preferences instead of implementing the elected President’s agenda. Such behavior undermines democracy, as it enables government power to be wielded without accountability to the voters or their elected representatives.

On October 21, 2020, President Donald J. Trump addressed these challenges with Executive Order 13957, “Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service.” Title 5 generally authorizes the President or OPM to exclude employees in excepted service positions of a “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character” (hereafter “policy-influencing positions”) from chapter 75 procedural requirements and MSPB appeals. Chapter 43 also authorizes OPM to exclude excepted service positions from its procedural requirements and concomitant MSPB appeals. Executive Order 13957 used this authority to create a new Schedule F in the excepted service for policy-influencing career employees. The order required nonpartisan appointments to and removals from Schedule F; these positions remained career appointments filled based on merit and not political affiliation. However, chapter 43 and 75 procedural requirements and appeals would no longer apply. This would enable agencies to expeditiously remove career employees in policy-influencing positions for poor performance or misconduct, such as corruption or for injecting partisanship into the performance of their official duties.

Executive Order 13957 recognized the value of a nonpartisan merit service that develops and maintains institutional knowledge and experience. It strengthened the merit service by giving agencies the tools necessary to hold policy-influencing employees accountable when they fail to uphold high standards of conduct and performance.

On January 22, 2021, President Joseph Biden issued Executive Order 14003, which abolished Schedule F before any positions were transferred into it. In April 2024 OPM issued a final rule (hereinafter the “April 2024 final rule”) amending the civil service regulations to:

  1. Define policy-influencing positions to encompass only political appointments and have no applicability to career Federal positions;
  2. Establish comprehensive procedures, including MSPB appeals, governing the transfer of positions to policy-influencing schedules in the excepted service;
  3. Provide that any career incumbents moved into such policy-influencing excepted service schedules would remain subject to adverse actions procedural requirements and retain adverse action appeals.

On the first day of his second term President Trump signed Executive Order 14171 on “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce.” As described below, until the 1960s the general Federal workforce could not appeal adverse actions. Executive Order 14171 used an express grant of statutory authority to return policy-influencing positions to this historical baseline. To this end, Executive Order 14171 created a new Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for policy-influencing positions and made several related modifications to the civil service rules. Under the order Schedule Policy/Career positions remain career positions, filled on a nonpartisan basis using standard career employee hiring procedures. At the same time, employees in such positions will serve at-will and will not be covered by chapter 43 or 75 procedures. This will enable the President and his appointed agency heads to hold Schedule Policy/Career employees meaningfully accountable for their performance and conduct.

The OPM Director is generally charged with executing, administering, and enforcing the civil service rules and regulations of the President and the laws governing the civil service. Accordingly, OPM proposes this rule to strengthen employee accountability and implement Executive Order 14171.

Proposed Regulatory Changes

  1. Amend 5 CFR part 213 (Excepted Service):

    • Include Schedule Policy/Career as an excepted service schedule for policy-influencing career positions.
    • Clarify that Schedule C appointments are exclusively for noncareer (i.e., political) appointments with policy responsibilities.
    • Clarify that employees filling excepted service positions are in the excepted service, regardless of whether they retain competitive status.
    • List increasing accountability to the President as grounds for excepting positions from the competitive service.

  2. Amend 5 CFR part 212 (Competitive Service and Competitive Status):

    • Provide that employees with competitive status whose positions are subsequently listed in the excepted service or who are involuntarily transferred into an excepted service position retain competitive status but do not remain in the competitive service while in the excepted position.

  3. Amend 5 CFR part 752 (Adverse Actions):

    • Remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule.
    • Provide that individuals whose positions are reclassified into or who are otherwise transferred into Schedule Policy/Career are not covered by chapter 75 procedural requirements or adverse actions appeals.
    • Remove language pertaining to 10 U.S.C. 1599e (now obsolete).
    • Amend 5 CFR part 432 (Performance Based Reduction in Grade and Removal Actions) to remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule and to exclude all policy-influencing positions in the excepted service from chapter 43 procedural requirements for performance-based removals.

  4. Amend 5 CFR part 210 (Basic Concepts and Definitions (General)):

    • Remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule stating that policy-influencing positions are exclusively associated with noncareer political appointments.
    • Amend 5 CFR 213.3301 and 451.302 to conform to the rescission of these definitions.

  5. Amend 5 CFR part 302:

    • Remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule imposing procedural requirements on movements of positions or employees into policy-influencing excepted service positions (including subsequent MSPB appeals).
    • Provide that moving or transferring positions into Schedule Policy/Career will not change how appointments to those positions are made.
    • Positions moved from the competitive service will be filled using competitive hiring procedures and employees so appointed may acquire competitive status.
    • Positions moved from the excepted service will continue to be filled using the procedures that applied to their prior excepted service schedule.

Purpose

This rulemaking will promote Federal employee accountability and strengthen American democracy while addressing performance management challenges and issues with misconduct within the Federal workforce. It will give agencies the practical ability to separate employees who insert partisanship into their official duties, engage in corruption, or otherwise fail to uphold merit principles. OPM may set forth policies, procedures, standards, and supplementary guidance for the implementation of any final rule.