What Is Schedule F
Schedule F is a job category for federal employees in “policy-influencing” roles that strips them of normal civil-service protections and makes them effectively at-will, meaning they can be fired easily and without the usual appeal rights. It does not abolish their jobs. It changes the rules so that a president can remove the people who hold them. The first Trump administration created it by executive order in 2020, President Biden rescinded it in 2021, and Trump revived it in 2025 under a new name, “Schedule Policy/Career.”
A rule change about who can be fired, not a layoff. Schedule F moves career federal workers out of the protected merit system and into a category where the president can dismiss them at will.
Key facts
- Schedule F lets the government fire workers in policy roles at will, removing the appeal and tenure protections career employees normally have (Federal Register).
- It was created by executive order in October 2020, rescinded in January 2021, and revived in January 2025 (CRS).
- An initial reclassification covered about 8,000 positions, with OPM estimating up to 50,000 could eventually be affected (NPR).
- The merit system itself dates to the 1883 Pendleton Act, passed after a job-seeker assassinated President Garfield (Britannica).
- A bipartisan bill, the Saving the Civil Service Act, would block Schedule F by requiring congressional consent (Congress.gov).
If you work for the federal government and worry your job is being reclassified, your union and the Merit Systems Protection Board are the first places to check your rights. The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union represent many affected workers and track these changes.
The disagreement runs through Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for expanding presidential control over the bureaucracy, where Schedule F is a centerpiece. Supporters say a president should be able to remove career staff who block his agenda. Critics say it reopens the door to the patronage system the country closed in 1883.
Protections It Removes
The single most common confusion about Schedule F is that it fires people. It does not fire anyone by itself. It strips the legal protections that stand between a career worker and a politically motivated dismissal, which is what makes firing easy afterward. A career civil servant can appeal a firing, blow the whistle on wrongdoing, and count on being hired for skill rather than loyalty. Under Schedule F, those guardrails fall away.
The contrast between the two makes the change concrete.
| Protection | Career civil servant | Under Schedule F |
|---|---|---|
| Can be fired at will | No, only for documented cause | Yes, with little process |
| Right to appeal a firing | Yes, to the Merit Systems Protection Board | Largely removed |
| Whistleblower protection | Yes, for reporting waste or wrongdoing | Weakened in practice |
| Hired by | Merit, through competitive examination | Subject to political loyalty pressure |
The last row is where the spoils-system worry lives. If a worker can be removed for any reason, the pressure to stay loyal to the people in power rather than to the law or the facts grows. That is the dynamic the merit system was built to prevent.
From the Spoils System to Merit
The fight over Schedule F is the latest round in a 140-year argument about who federal jobs belong to. The merit system was created by the 1883 Pendleton Act after Garfield’s assassination, dismantled in part by Schedule F in October 2020, restored by Biden in January 2021, and revived again in January 2025 before OPM finalized the rule in 2026.
- Pendleton Act creates merit hiring After Garfield is assassinated by an office-seeker, Congress ties federal hiring to examination, not patronage.
- Trump creates Schedule F Executive Order 13957 reclassifies policy-role employees as at-will.
- Biden rescinds Schedule F Executive Order 14003 reverses it before any worker is moved.
- Trump revives Schedule F Executive Order 14171 brings it back, renamed Schedule Policy/Career.
- OPM finalizes the rule The rule is published and roughly 8,000 jobs are reclassified, with more possible.
Sources: Federal Register; OPM; NPR; Britannica.
The civil service from Pendleton to Schedule F, 1883 to 2026: 1883 — Pendleton Act creates merit hiring (After Garfield is assassinated by an office-seeker, Congress ties federal hiring to examination, not patronage.). Oct 2020 — Trump creates Schedule F (Executive Order 13957 reclassifies policy-role employees as at-will.). Jan 2021 — Biden rescinds Schedule F (Executive Order 14003 reverses it before any worker is moved.). Jan 2025 — Trump revives Schedule F (Executive Order 14171 brings it back, renamed Schedule Policy/Career.). 2026 — OPM finalizes the rule (The rule is published and roughly 8,000 jobs are reclassified, with more possible.).
1883: The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, signed January 16, 1883, created a merit-based civil service with hiring by competitive examination. It replaced the spoils system, under which each new administration handed government jobs to its political supporters.
October 2020: President Trump signed Executive Order 13957 on October 21, 2020, creating Schedule F. It moved employees in policy-influencing roles out of the competitive service and made them removable at will.
January 2021: President Biden rescinded Schedule F with Executive Order 14003 on January 22, 2021, before any employee was actually reclassified under it.
January 2025: President Trump revived the policy with Executive Order 14171 on January 20, 2025, later renaming the category Schedule Policy/Career.
2026: OPM finalized the rule, published in the Federal Register on February 5, 2026, and issued an implementation order on June 3, 2026. An initial round reclassified about 8,000 positions, with roughly 97% of them at the senior GS-15 grade or above.
Schedule F by the Numbers
Schedule F targets the senior, expert end of the workforce, not the rank and file. The first reclassification concentrated on the most senior career employees, the people who write rules, run programs, and advise political appointees.
- 1883
- the Pendleton Act began the merit-based civil service
- ~8,000
- positions reclassified under Schedule F so far
- up to 50,000
- positions OPM estimates could eventually be affected
- 97%
- of reclassified jobs are senior, at the GS-15 grade or above
The roughly 8,000 positions reclassified so far are the start, not the ceiling. OPM’s own estimate that as many as 50,000 jobs could move into Schedule F shows how far the reach could extend if the rule is fully applied.
The seniority figure tells the rest of the story. When 97% of the affected jobs sit at GS-15 or above, the change lands on the experts who carry institutional knowledge and on the people whose independent judgment political appointees most often want to override.
Why It Matters
Schedule F matters because it decides whether the federal government answers to the law or to whoever holds the White House. The career workforce includes the scientists who test drug safety, the economists who score budgets, the inspectors who track waste, and the analysts who tell political bosses things they may not want to hear. Strip their protections and the incentive shifts from getting the facts right to staying on the right side of the boss.
The threat is real, but so is the remedy. The merit system was built in response to a national tragedy, and Congress can defend it the same way it created it, by writing the protection into law. A bipartisan bill to do exactly that already exists, which means the fix is a vote, not an invention.
The Honest Disagreement
Serious people disagree about Schedule F, and the disagreement is real. We lay out both cases and let you weigh them.
The legal question and the policy question are not the same. One asks whether the Constitution lets a president reclassify these workers. The other asks whether doing so is good for the country. A person can answer those two questions differently.
The case for Schedule F comes from the administration and the Heritage Foundation. They argue that a president needs to remove career employees who are unaccountable or who obstruct the agenda voters elected him to carry out, and that Article II of the Constitution gives the executive branch authority over its own staff. The OPM rule went further, calling existing civil-service protections “unconstitutional overcorrections” that shield poor performers.
The case against Schedule F comes from the Partnership for Public Service and its president Max Stier, the unions AFGE and NTEU, and political scientist Francis Fukuyama. They argue that it politicizes jobs that are supposed to be nonpartisan, invites cronyism and corruption by tying employment to loyalty, and threatens the independence of scientists and other experts whose work depends on being able to report inconvenient facts.
Where the dispute narrows is on the merit principle itself. Even many critics of any single career employee agree that hiring and firing should not turn on political loyalty. The fight is over whether Schedule F protects accountability or reopens the patronage door the country closed in 1883. We do not declare a winner on the legal question.
Frequently asked questions
What does Schedule F actually change? It does not eliminate jobs. It moves employees in policy roles into a category where they can be fired at will, removing the appeal rights and tenure protections career workers normally have.
How many workers are affected? About 8,000 positions have been reclassified so far. OPM has estimated that as many as 50,000 could eventually be moved, and roughly 97% of those reclassified are senior employees at the GS-15 grade or above.
Is this legal? That is contested. The administration argues Article II gives the president authority over executive-branch staff, while unions and good-government groups argue it conflicts with the civil-service laws Congress wrote. Courts and Congress are both still weighing it.
Can Congress stop it? Yes. Because Schedule F runs on executive orders and agency rules, Congress can override it with a law. The bipartisan Saving the Civil Service Act would require congressional consent before workers can be reclassified.
What you can do
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Ask your members of Congress to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act. The bill (H.R. 492 in the House, S. 134 in the Senate) would require congressional consent before workers are reclassified. Ask each of your representatives, on the record, whether they will support it. Use the letter and call script below.
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Tell them the merit system should not depend on one election. A protection that one executive order can switch off is not a real protection. Ask for the safeguard to be written into law, not left to the next administration’s discretion.
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Point to the bipartisan cosponsors. The bill already has support from Sen. Tim Kaine and Republicans like Brian Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon. Ask your own representatives to join them rather than wait.
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Learn the larger plan. Read our Project 2025 series on the blueprint that made Schedule F a centerpiece of expanding presidential control over the bureaucracy.
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Write your representative using the letter below and ask for a clear, on-the-record commitment to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act.