Trump moves senior career officials to Schedule F without civil service protections

President Trump on 3 June 2026 signed an executive order converting roughly 8,000 senior career federal jobs into Schedule Policy/Career, stripping the incumbents of civil service protections and making them effectively at-will employees, Government Executive reported. About 97 percent are GS-15s or senior leaders—office and division heads, chief information officers, regulation writers and policy attorneys. Those reclassified lose the right to appeal removals to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and their whistleblower complaints would be reviewed by their own agency rather than the Office of Special Counsel.

Where it began

The category traces to 21 October 2020, when Trump issued Executive Order 13957, "Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service." Trump lost the November election before agencies acted, and the Government Accountability Office later found that no positions were actually moved—though OPM had approved a request to reclassify 415 Office of Management and Budget employees.

The Biden interlude

President Biden revoked the order on 22 January 2021 through Executive Order 14003, "Protecting the Federal Workforce." In April 2024, the OPM went further, finalizing a rule, as reported by FedNewsNetwork, that reinforced appeal rights and was designed to make any revival slow and difficult for a future administration.

Now what

Trump reinstated EO 13957 on 20 January 2025, renaming the category Schedule Policy/Career. Rather than simply nullifying the Biden rule, OPM ran the notice-and-comment process, publishing its final rule in February 2026; it took effect in March. OPM had estimated 50,000 conversions, but the June order targets only "the most senior level career policy officials."

The policy faces multiple lawsuits from unions including the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees, which argue it violates the Constitution, the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. OPM Director Scott Kupor insists there are "zero loyalty tests," saying the schedule only lets the government remove senior officials who refuse to carry out lawful directives. Good-government groups counter that state-level at-will systems have produced uneven results and invited political favoritism.