Trump expands assault on civil service

The Trump administration has taken two more steps to expand the president’s authority over federal workers.

The first will clarify which workers will be reclassified as “Schedule F” workers, all of whom will be deemed “at-will employees” serving at the pleasure of the president. Many senior-level workers will be in this classification. The second act will strip collective bargaining rights from federal workers’ unions representing as many as 34 federal agencies.

OPM defines Schedule F

In one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump reissued an Executive Order (EO) creating Schedule F. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently released a directive that fleshed out the EO. The directive creates a new tier of federal employees sitting between presidential appointees and the senior executive service, the top level of career federal employees. The class will be termed the “schedule policy/career” category. The new classification includes “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” jobs in the federal government, positions that are thought to comprise the “permanent civil service.” 

OPM estimates that as many as 50,000 positions would ultimately move into the schedule policy/ career category—about 2% of the federal workforce. The president has reserved for himself the authority to determine which positions will be included. Lawsuits had already been filed challenging the original EO. Others may follow the directive.

President revokes most federal union contracts