Trump reclassifies 8,000 senior federal workers to at-will status

President Trump signed an executive orderExecutive OrderA written directive from the President directing federal agencies to implement or change policy without requiring congressional approval.Key ConceptExecutive OrderA written directive from the President directing federal agencies to implement or change policy without requiring congressional approval.Open conceptBookmark on June 3, 2026, placing roughly 8,000 career federal positions into a new employment category called Schedule Policy/Career. The affected workers occupy GS-15 positions, the highest pay grade outside the Senior Executive Service, and include directors, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers, policy analysts, senior regulation writers, and those who control federal grant disbursements.

About 97% of the reclassified positions are at the GS-15 level or above, earning salaries of up to $200,000 annually. A smaller number of GS-13 and GS-14 positions, mostly inside the Office of Management and Budget, are included as well.

Workers moved into Schedule Policy/Career lose the procedural protections that have governed federal terminations since the Civil ServiceCivil ServiceThe body of nonpartisan government employees hired and retained on the basis of merit rather than political loyalty.Key ConceptCivil ServiceThe body of nonpartisan government employees hired and retained on the basis of merit rather than political loyalty.Open conceptBookmark Reform Act of 1978. Gone are the rights to written notice of the charges against them, access to supporting materials, legal representation, and appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent adjudicator that handles roughly 7,000 federal employment cases per year. In their place, agencies may now remove employees without providing any reason at all.

The federal government employs about 2 million career workers. Before this order, roughly 4,000 political appointees served at-will. This order more than doubles that figure, creating a new class of quasi-political employees who retain their career titles but lose the independence that title has historically guaranteed.

The policy traces directly to a standoff over who runs the executive branch. Schedule Policy/Career is built on the unitary executiveUnitary ExecutiveThe constitutional theory that the President must control all executive branch officials and decisions.Key ConceptUnitary ExecutiveThe constitutional theory that the President must control all executive branch officials and decisions.Open conceptBookmark theory, the constitutional argument that all executive power belongs exclusively to the president, and that anyone who implements policy must be fully subject to presidential control. OPM Director Scott Kupor, confirmed in 2025 to lead the agency overseeing federal human resources, told reporters on Wednesday that the order is "about accountability" and "a restoration, in our mind, of the democratic process."

Kupor argued that because voters elect the president, federal workers who carry out policy must be willing to execute presidential directives. "You can have any political views," he said, "but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at will."

The history of this contest runs back 143 years. Before the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, federal jobs were patronage rewards known as the spoils systemSpoils SystemThe pre-1883 practice of presidents rewarding political supporters with government jobs after winning an election.Key ConceptSpoils SystemThe pre-1883 practice of presidents rewarding political supporters with government jobs after winning an election.Open conceptBookmark. Presidents from Andrew Jackson onward filled agencies with political allies, regardless of qualifications. The assassination of President James Garfield in 1881 by a disappointed job seeker broke the political deadlock; Congress passed the Pendleton Act two years later, establishing merit-based hiring and protecting workers from partisan dismissal.

The Pendleton Act initially covered only about 10% of federal positions. Over the following century, Congress and successive presidents expanded its protections until about 90% of the 2-million-person workforce gained civil service status. The act created the Civil Service Commission, later reorganized into OPM and the MSPB, to enforce merit principles independent of political pressure.

Trump's first attempt at Schedule F came in October 2020, with an executive order published in the Federal Register directing agencies to identify policy-influencing employees for reclassification. It came in the final months of his first term and was never implemented. The Government Accountability Office later confirmed no agency moved any employee before Biden revoked it on January 22, 2021, day three of his presidency.

Biden then went further, finalizing a rule in April 2024 that explicitly defined policy-influencing roles as political appointees only, blocking any future Schedule F revival by statute. The Trump administration rescinded that rule within weeks of taking office in 2025, and OPM Director Scott Kupor published the Schedule Policy/Career final rule on February 6, 2026. Wednesday's order was the final triggering step.

The order generated immediate legal challenges. The American Federation of Government Employees, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, represented by Democracy Forward, filed an amended lawsuit in March 2026 challenging the entire Schedule Policy/Career framework as exceeding presidential authority, violating due processDue ProcessThe fundamental constitutional requirement that government follow fair procedures and apply laws reasonably to protect life, liberty, and property.Key ConceptDue ProcessThe fundamental constitutional requirement that government follow fair procedures and apply laws reasonably to protect life, liberty, and property.Open conceptBookmark, and contradicting the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. "If Schedule Policy/Career is allowed to move forward," AFGE President Everett Kelley said, "it will amount to one of the largest acts of political corruption in American history."

A separate lawsuit by the Government Accountability Project and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association is pending in the D.C. District Court. The Congressional Research Service noted in February 2026 analysis that legal challenges fall into three categories: facial challenges to the underlying executive order, challenges to OPM's implementation rules, and individual employee claims once firings begin.

Research disputes the administration's core claim that at-will employmentAt-Will EmploymentAn employment relationship that can be ended by either the employer or employee at any time, for any reason, without legal consequence.Key ConceptAt-Will EmploymentAn employment relationship that can be ended by either the employer or employee at any time, for any reason, without legal consequence.Open conceptBookmark improves performance. The Partnership for Public Service released a January 2026 report examining state-government experience with at-will civil servants. The study found no consistent evidence that at-will employment improves employee or agency performance. Among HR professionals in six states with at-will public employment, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, and South Carolina, fewer than 20% said employees are more productive under at-will status.

The report also found significant turnover costs. Texas, which has largely at-will state employment, sees 16% annual attrition in state government compared to the federal government's 5.9%. Missouri's attrition reached 29% in 2022. Replacing a single employee costs between 50% and 400% of their salary, meaning the order could impose hundreds of millions in annual replacement costs on federal agencies.

The OPM's initial regulatory estimate projected that approximately 50,000 positions would be reclassified. Some analysts had projected as many as 200,000. The June 3 order covers roughly 8,000, a narrower slice than either estimate. Senior administration officials told reporters that President Trump could expand the covered positions in future orders but has no immediate plans to do so.

Among the specific position types now covered are chief information officers, senior public affairs officers, legislative affairs leaders, heads of agency subcomponents and regional offices, senior officials involved in budget allocations and federal grant decisions, and high-level agency attorneys involved in setting policy. Agencies have seven days from the June 3 signing to update affected employees' personnel records.

Congress can reverse the order through two mechanisms. The Save the Civil Service Act, bipartisan legislation introduced in both chambers and led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA), would overturn the OPM rule and block the classification. Separately, Congress can invoke the Congressional Review Act to nullify executive branch rules. Neither mechanism had advanced to a floor vote as of June 2026. The OPM rule received over 40,000 public comments during its proposed-rule period, with about 94% of commenters opposed, among the highest opposition rates recorded for a major federal workforce rule.