What is Schedule Policy/Career (formerly Schedule F)?

• Schedule Policy/Career is a federal employment category, or “schedule,” established by the current Trump administration via executive order. The order permits agency leaders to reassign some federal positions from their current employment category into a new category.  
• The executive order is broadly directed at career federal employees in policymaking roles. The order gives examples of job responsibilities for these types of roles as a guide for agency heads who are deciding whether to reclassify a position into the new Policy/Career schedule.  
• However, the full scope of which positions might be affected is unclear, as the directive relies on agency heads to determine the specific roles that will fall under Schedule Policy/Career. 
  • See more under “How do I know if Schedule Policy/Career will apply to me?” below.  
• Schedule Policy/Career employees will have fewer employment protections, making them easier to fire.   

How is Schedule Policy/Career different from Schedule F?

• The new executive order clarifies that Schedule Policy/Career is directed at career federal employees in competitive service positions. It includes some guidance for agency heads to use when determining which roles to place in Schedule Policy/Career, and it directs the Office of Personnel Management director to issue further guidance about additional categories of positions. 
• Additionally, the new directive notes that Schedule Policy/Career employees, or applicants for these positions, are not required to personally or politically support President Trump or the policies of the current administration. The 2020 Schedule F executive order did not make this distinction.  

How do I know if Schedule Policy/Career will apply to me?

• It is unclear how the Schedule Policy/Career guidelines will be implemented because much of the reclassification actions are at the agency’s discretion. 
• The executive order creating Schedule Policy/Career directs agency leaders to identify all employees in competitive service positions or in other schedules already excepted from the competitive service “of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.” The order allows agency heads to determine which employees fall into these definitions. 
• The executive order lists certain job duties that agency heads should consider—for example, whether the position involves developing or drafting regulations or guidance. It also directs the Office of Personnel Management to issue guidance on additional categories of positions that agencies should consider for the Policy/Career schedule. It is up to the agency heads to decide how to apply these considerations.    

How many federal employees were placed in Schedule F during the first Trump administration?

• The Government Accountability Office found that no agency placed positions in Schedule F before the executive order was revoked in January 2021.  
• However, according to GAO, some agencies had begun to consider doing so. For example, the Office of Personnel Management approved the Office of Management and Budget’s request to move 136 types of positions into Schedule F. This shift would have involved 415 employees—or 68% of OMB’s workforce. 

Are there any roadblocks to implementing the Schedule Policy/Career executive order?

• The Biden administration finalized a rule in April 2024 that established procedural requirements for moving positions from the competitive service to the excepted service, or from one excepted service to another.  
• The rule mandated that the civil service protections employees accrue cannot be taken away if their position is involuntarily moved. It also gave civil servants who are involuntarily moved and stripped of those accrued protections the right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board.  
• The new Schedule Policy/Career regulation by the Trump administration must go through a rulemaking process to override the Biden administration’s rule. The rulemaking process generally takes months to complete. 
• The Trump administration may attempt to fast-track Schedule Policy/Career and work around the Biden administration regulation by using an interim or direct final rule. An interim or direct rule would allow a new Schedule Policy/Career policy to go into effect immediately. However, this attempt would likely be challenged in court. 
• The Trump executive order directs the Office of Personnel Management to rescind the regulation it issued under the Biden administration.  

What job protections would Schedule Policy/Career positions have?

• The executive order requires agencies to follow the principle of veterans’ preference as far as “administratively feasible,” which leaves its implementation unclear.  
• Additionally, individuals in these positions would lose certain due process rights, such as notice of removal and the right to appeal if removed from a job. 
• The order also requires agencies to establish rules around prohibited personnel practices. It is unclear what approaches agencies may take in implementing these rules. 

If I was hired into a competitive service position, could my role be retroactively moved to Schedule Policy/Career?

• Attempts to retroactively move employees into the excepted service are likely to be challenged in court.  
• Federal employee unions, as well as other organizations, challenged the 2020 Schedule F executive order, and lawsuits have already been filed to challenge the new 2025 directive.  

What can Congress do?

• Congress could pass legislation that creates or prevents the creation of new federal employment categories or modifies federal employee protections.  

What are the foundations of the federal civil service? 

• The basic principles of the federal civil service—such as merit hiring, nonpartisanship and fair treatment of employees—were established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and are reflected in Title 5 of U.S. Code through nine Merit System Principles and 14 Prohibited Personnel Practices. 
• These foundational principles are complemented by laws that help define the conditions of federal employment, such as the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by civil servants, and the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects employees who report misconduct or illegal activity.  

How are civil service rules enforced? 

• Civil service rules are enforced by several agencies: the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Office of Special Counsel, the Office of Personnel Management, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.  

What are the core responsibilities of federal civil servants? 

• According to the standards of ethical conduct for federal employees, “each employee has a responsibility to the United States Government and its citizens to place loyalty to the Constitution, laws, and ethical principles above private gain.”  
• Civil servants must adhere to the federal government’s Fourteen General Principles of Ethical Conduct, which elaborate on the standards for ethical conduct and set parameters for public servants’ behavior around impartiality, serving the public interest and avoiding conflicts of interest, among other topics.  
• These laws and regulations complement the Merit System Principles and Prohibited Personnel Practices. 
• Civilian career employees must also follow numerous ethics laws to ensure they carry out the lawful policies of an administration and uphold merit system principles while doing so. These ethics laws include the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of federal employees. Career employees are bound by strict ethics and political interference laws, including potential criminal penalties for violating conflict of interest statutes. 

What are the basic rights of federal civil servants? 

• The basic rights of federal civil servants are codified in the Merit System Principles and enforced through 14 Prohibited Personnel Practices. These rights include: 
  • Being hired based solely on merit 
  • Receiving fair and equitable treatment as an employee 
  • Receiving equal pay for work of equal value 
  • Being protected from arbitrary action, personal favoritism, discrimination, coercion for partisan political purposes and reprisal for whistleblowing. 
• Additionally, career members of the Senior Executive Service, employees of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as well as agencies involved in elections and the enforcement of civil service protections, are prohibited from taking an active part in partisan political management or partisan political campaigns. 

What is due process? 

• Due process is designed to ensure that adverse actions—actions considered unfavorable to an employee, such as firing, suspension, furlough or demotion—are taken in accordance with the merit system principles and for proper cause. 
• Depending on the specific adverse action, due process usually includes advance notice, an opportunity to respond to the action and information on how to pursue the appeals process. At a minimum, the employee must be notified and receive a meaningful opportunity to respond before the action takes place. 

What can I do if I think an adverse action, a performance-based action, or an allegation of misconduct is being erroneously applied to me? 

• Depending on the issues involved, the facilitation of due process is the responsibility of the affected employee’s agency, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Office of Special Counsel. Please visit their websites for more information about the types of appeals that should be filed with each entity. 

Do I have the right to an attorney? 

• Yes. Employees can secure an attorney to represent them in these matters. The agency does not represent the employee, so employees must retain their own counsel. In some cases, professional liability insurance may cover the cost of legal services.  
• Many federal management and executive employee associations, along with federal unions, offer guidance to their members on legal support and professional liability insurance, including but not limited to the:  
  • American Federation of Government Employees  
  • Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association  
  • Federal Managers Association  
  • National Active and Retired Federal Employees  
  • National Federation of Federal Employees  
  • National Treasury Employees Union  
  • Professional Managers Association 
  • Senior Executives Association 

What if I am the subject of a Congressional investigation? 

• Typically, employees secure attorneys if they are under congressional investigation. Some external organizations that can provide more insights include the American Bar Association, Protect Democracy and We the Action.