The Trump administration pressed ahead Monday with rebranded plans to make it easier to fire certain federal workers.
In a memorandum to all federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management spelled out guidance for what is now called “Schedule Career/Policy.” The name amends what was called “Schedule F” when the idea was initiated at the end of the first term of President Donald Trump.
“Effective performance management of employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions is of the utmost importance,” the OPM stated, adding that “due to these requirements, agencies should have a greater degree of appointment flexibility with respect to these employees than is afforded by the existing competitive service process.”
The six-page OPM memo and an accompanying amended executive order direct federal agency heads to conduct a preliminary review within 90 days of their agency’s positions that may fit into the “policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.” The review includes determining which of the positions “are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition.”
A complete review must be completed within 210 days.
The OPM declares that employees in or applicants for Schedule Policy/Career positions “are not required to personally or politically support the current president or the policies of the current administration,” but they are expected to be administratively loyal.
“They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the president,” the OPM states. “Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”
The memo and amended executive order mark the latest turn in a civil service dispute launched by Trump’s issuance of Executive Order 13957 in October 2020. The order created the new Schedule F class of federal worker who would be more vulnerable to dismissal.
According to a Government Accountability Office summary, civil servants are generally entitled to notice of a removal, an opportunity to reply, representation by an attorney and a written decision. They can also appeal the removal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or file a grievance under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. These procedural protections generally would have been unavailable to Schedule F employees. Hiring would also be streamlined; for instance, hiring preferences for veterans would no longer apply to Schedule F hires.
Former President Joe Biden subsequently revoked Executive Order 13957 in January 2021 through an executive order of his own.
“[It] not only was unnecessary to the conditions of good administration but also undermined the foundations of the civil service and its merit system principles, which were essential to the … repudiation of the spoils system,” Biden said at the time.
Last year, the Biden administration issued rules that strengthened the barriers against a return of the Schedule F concept. Trump rescinded the Biden-era moves in an executive order issued his first day in office.
“Agencies need the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation,” the OPM stated Monday.
The National Treasury Employees Union, on behalf of employees in 36 federal agencies, has already filed a lawsuit challenging the moves that the union’s President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement would lead to “political loyalty tests” for public employees.
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