Trump Reclassifies 8,000 Senior Policy Federal Workers as At-Will Employees

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 3 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, that removes civil service protections from roughly 8,000 high-level federal workers and reclassifies them as at-will employees. The order creates a new category called Schedule Policy/Career.

It covers directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers, policy analysts and employees with significant involvement in drafting regulations and determining who gets federal grants.

The affected workers earn up to almost $200,000 a year. The order applies to approximately 8,000 positions across multiple agencies. Agencies can now remove employees in the new category for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives without lengthy procedural hurdles, according to a White House fact sheet.

The Guardian reported that the order forms part of a broader administration effort to overhaul the federal workforce. NPR stated that the reclassification allows the employees to be fired without due process. The move revives an approach first introduced at the end of Trump’s first term through an order creating Schedule F, which could have affected an estimated 50,000 workers.

Former President Joe Biden reversed that directive. Trump revived the effort after taking office last year. The Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule creating the Schedule Policy/Career category in February.

“This is very much about accountability,” OPM director Scott Kupor told reporters Wednesday. ” The Schedule Policy/Career designation is currently the subject of several lawsuits.