OPM proposes rule to formally revive Schedule F
The Office of Personnel Management on Friday filed proposed regulations that would formally revive Schedule F, setting the stage for tens of thousands of federal workers to be stripped of their civil service protections, making them effectively at-will employees.
The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register on April 23, outlines the new excepted service category, now called Schedule Policy/Career, purports to remove “cumbersome adverse action procedures” for employees in what the administration deems to be policy-related jobs and accused the Biden administration, which filed its own regulations last year seeking to prevent Schedule F’s return, of “protecting poor performers.”
OPM estimates that around 50,000 federal workers will be placed in the new job category, or around 2% of the civilian workforce.
The proposed regulations formally adopt changes from the original Schedule F proposal to make it more legally palatable, including moving the final decision-making authority regarding the conversion of jobs to the president, rather than the OPM director. It also states that the hiring process under Schedule Policy/Career will remain as it is in the competitive service.
And the regulations reiterate language in early OPM guidance on the executive order stating that the HR agency is not required to undergo the traditional notice-and-comment process to rescind portions of Biden’s regulations, citing a vague presidential authority to “nullify” federal rules.
“Executive Order 14171 also overrode significant parts of the April 2024 final rule,” OPM wrote. “That rule used delegated presidential authority to amend parts 210 and 302 of the civil service regulations. President Trump used his executive authority to directly render those amendments inoperative.”
OPM’s filing discusses the history of civil service protections within the federal government, describing the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act as an effort to clean up a patchwork of executive orders and court precedent governing employees’ removal protections that had cropped up since the 1960s. While that is partly true, the law was also partly in response to President Nixon’s abuse of power at the Justice Department and a broader effort to make agencies more politically pliable to the president.
The release of the administration’s regulatory proposal to reinstitute Schedule F comes as political appointees across government have suspended or fired employees for perceived disobedience, particularly in instances where operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency sought access to sensitive data systems.
OPM has provided a 30-day comment window, after which point it will finalize the regulations. Following the issuance of a final rule, Trump must issue an additional executive order finalizing the conversion of positions from the competitive service into the new job category.
