Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service

Key Points

• Trump signed an executive order that moves certain federal career positions into a new category called Schedule Policy/Career. These are jobs where workers help shape, determine, or advocate for government policies. Workers in these roles lose key civil service protections that currently make it very hard to fire them.
• The order strips standard adverse action protections from these workers, making it far easier for managers to remove them for poor performance or misconduct. The administration argues this is necessary because current rules make it nearly impossible to fire underperformers.
• The order states that hiring for these positions must still be based on merit and not political ties, and it requires agencies to follow veteran preference rules as far as possible. However, workers moved into these roles will no longer be subject to trial periods.
• Agencies are told to create special bonus pools to reward outstanding Schedule Policy/Career employees, and the Office of Personnel Management will create a new Presidential award program for them.
• Agency heads must notify affected workers within just 7 days that their jobs have been reclassified. The specific positions being transferred are listed in an appendix to the order, and future organizational changes won't undo a position's placement in Schedule Policy/Career.