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Schedule F appointment
Schedule Policy/Career, commonly known by its former name Schedule F, is a job classification for appointments in the excepted service of the United States federal civil service for permanent policy-related positions. The purpose of the provision is to increase the president's control over the federal career civil service by removing their civil service protections and making them easier to dismiss, which proponents stated would increase flexibility and accountability to elected officials. It was widely criticized as providing a means to retaliate against federal officials for political reasons, impede the effective functioning of government, and creating risk to democracy. It has been estimated that tens or hundreds of thousands of career employees could be reclassified, increasing the number of political appointments by a factor of ten.
The classification, then known as Schedule F, existed briefly at the end of the first Trump administration during 2020 and 2021, but was never fully implemented and no one was appointed to it before it was repealed at the beginning of the Biden administration. Since mid-2022, the 2024 Trump campaign's plan to reinstate the provision attracted attention and commentary. In April 2024, the Biden administration adopted a regulation that would prevent most of the effects of a reinstatement of Schedule F, which was expected to take a future administration several months to repeal. It was reinstated as Schedule Policy/Career at the beginning of the second Trump administration in 2025.
The legal basis for the Schedule Policy/Career appointment is a section of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (), which exempts from civil service protections federal employees "whose position has been determined to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating character". The provision had been little noticed and unused before its application by the original Schedule F order.
The text of the 2020 and 2025 versions of the executive order are nearly identical, with some minor amendments made by the latter. The stated purpose of the order was to increase flexibility in hiring and firing to improve performance management and accountability. The Civil Service Rules and Regulations do not cover employees within the Policy/Career classification, including due process and possibly collective bargaining rights. It would also have streamlined hiring for these positions, since a competitive examination would not be required.
However, appointees cannot be dismissed based on certain protected statuses, such as whistleblower status, partisan affiliation, or for claiming discrimination or harassment. The 2025 version added language making failure to faithfully implement administration policies to be grounds for dismissal, while stating that appointees "are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration."
The executive order also provided transition procedures for transferring covered positions out of the competitive service into a Policy/Career appointment, by which executive agency heads must petition the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with a list of positions to be converted with a written rationale. The OPM Director had the sole power to decide whether to grant the petition.
The Policy/Career classification includes "positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition". They are distinguished from Schedule C appointments, which cover policy-making positions that do change with the presidential transition. The executive orders list several characteristics of jobs that may fall under the Policy/Career classification:
According to OPM guidance on the original version, these provisions were guidelines, as not all positions covered by them were required to be converted to Policy/Career appointments, and positions not covered by them may have been converted. The provisions were broad enough to include many scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts, and others in senior roles. The estimated number of employees they covered ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
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Schedule F appointment
Schedule Policy/Career, commonly known by its former name Schedule F, is a job classification for appointments in the excepted service of the United States federal civil service for permanent policy-related positions. The purpose of the provision is to increase the president's control over the federal career civil service by removing their civil service protections and making them easier to dismiss, which proponents stated would increase flexibility and accountability to elected officials. It was widely criticized as providing a means to retaliate against federal officials for political reasons, impede the effective functioning of government, and creating risk to democracy. It has been estimated that tens or hundreds of thousands of career employees could be reclassified, increasing the number of political appointments by a factor of ten.
The classification, then known as Schedule F, existed briefly at the end of the first Trump administration during 2020 and 2021, but was never fully implemented and no one was appointed to it before it was repealed at the beginning of the Biden administration. Since mid-2022, the 2024 Trump campaign's plan to reinstate the provision attracted attention and commentary. In April 2024, the Biden administration adopted a regulation that would prevent most of the effects of a reinstatement of Schedule F, which was expected to take a future administration several months to repeal. It was reinstated as Schedule Policy/Career at the beginning of the second Trump administration in 2025.
The legal basis for the Schedule Policy/Career appointment is a section of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (), which exempts from civil service protections federal employees "whose position has been determined to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating character". The provision had been little noticed and unused before its application by the original Schedule F order.
The text of the 2020 and 2025 versions of the executive order are nearly identical, with some minor amendments made by the latter. The stated purpose of the order was to increase flexibility in hiring and firing to improve performance management and accountability. The Civil Service Rules and Regulations do not cover employees within the Policy/Career classification, including due process and possibly collective bargaining rights. It would also have streamlined hiring for these positions, since a competitive examination would not be required.
However, appointees cannot be dismissed based on certain protected statuses, such as whistleblower status, partisan affiliation, or for claiming discrimination or harassment. The 2025 version added language making failure to faithfully implement administration policies to be grounds for dismissal, while stating that appointees "are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration."
The executive order also provided transition procedures for transferring covered positions out of the competitive service into a Policy/Career appointment, by which executive agency heads must petition the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with a list of positions to be converted with a written rationale. The OPM Director had the sole power to decide whether to grant the petition.
The Policy/Career classification includes "positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition". They are distinguished from Schedule C appointments, which cover policy-making positions that do change with the presidential transition. The executive orders list several characteristics of jobs that may fall under the Policy/Career classification:
According to OPM guidance on the original version, these provisions were guidelines, as not all positions covered by them were required to be converted to Policy/Career appointments, and positions not covered by them may have been converted. The provisions were broad enough to include many scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts, and others in senior roles. The estimated number of employees they covered ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.