Trump Moves Forward With Plan to Make It Easier to Fire Some Federal Workers

An estimated 50,000 career government employees would be reclassified as ‘at-will’ employees held to new civil service regulations.

Demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington on Feb. 5, 2025. Nathan Howard/Reuters

President Donald Trump announced on April 18 that he plans to implement a day-one executive order aimed at increasing accountability among the nation’s federal workforce.

Trump said on Truth Social that, according to his order, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will issue new civil service regulations for career government employees.

“Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance,” he said.

“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job.

“This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!”

On the same day, the OPM announced the proposed rule allowing certain federal policy-influencing positions to be reclassified “Schedule Policy/Career.”

“This rule aims to strengthen accountability among career federal employees while streamlining removals for misconduct or poor performance,” it said.

The proposed rule implements one of Trump’s day-one executive orders, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce.” This will revise an order from the end of his first term, which then referred to Schedule Policy/Career as “Schedule F.” That earlier order was rescinded by President Joe Biden. Trump vowed throughout his 2024 campaign to bring back Schedule F.

The new performance standards will be set by new civil service regulations, which were also released by the OPM on April 18.

The office affirmed that the new schedule and policy career roles would remain nonpartisan and merit-based.

Public feedback on the proposal will be received between April 23 and May 23.

The White House estimated that 50,000 government employees, roughly two percent of the entire federal workforce, would be moved into this new category once a final rule is issued. Lower-level employees, such as individual border patrol agents, will generally be exempt from this rule.

“Policy-making federal employees have a tremendous amount of influence over our laws and our lives,” the personnel management office’s acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a press release.

“Such employees must be held to the highest standards of conduct. Americans deserve a government that is both effective and accountable,” he said.

According to a White House fact sheet on the rule, a Government Accountability Office report found it can take six months to a year to remove a poor performer from a position.

“Only two-fifths of federal managers are confident they could remove employees who committed serious misconduct,” the report stated. ”Just one-quarter believe they could remove an employee for poor performance in a critical element of their job.”

Examples of issues that were allowed to fester due to firing difficulties included an audit of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that found widespread sexual misconduct among its male supervisors towards female subordinates, and career attorneys in the Department of Justice refusing to assist with some litigation.

“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,” the fact sheet stated. ”A plurality said they would ignore the order and do what they thought best.”

Such developments come as the Trump administration has worked over the past four months to reduce the federal government workforce, with tens of thousands taking legal action to retain their jobs.

Opposition

Dissent against this new rule was already underway among Democratic lawmakers before Trump took office.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) announced a bill in January seeking to nullify the then-Schedule F order, alleging that Trump was trying to remove nonpartisan employees with political loyalists.

Saving the Civil Service Act would bar any career position created after Sept. 20, 2020, from being reclassified outside of merit system principles without the express consent of Congress. It has 73 co-sponsors, three of whom are registered Republicans: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), and Seth Magaziner (R-R.I.).

A similar bill was also filed in the Senate on Jan. 16 by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). It has 25 co-sponsors, none of whom are Republicans.

No vote has been taken on either one as of April 18.

Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.