The Trump administration took formal steps in April to create a new classification of federal employees – Schedule Policy/Career – that would make an estimated 50,000 federal employees “at-will,” stripping them of existing due process rights. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed a new rule titled “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” pursuant to President Trump’s January 2025 executive order.

Under the proposed rule, federal employees whose jobs are deemed as “policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties” would be reclassified into Schedule Policy/Career, losing civil service protections. These employees will be “at-will,” stripped of adverse action procedures or appeals. In a fact sheet, the administration says, “this rule empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives.”

The fact sheet says reclassified employees are “not required to personally or politically support the president,” but “must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies.” This proposed rule does not immediately move these feds into the new classification system; feds will be moved there via a different executive order after the final rule is issued.

In a February letter to President Trump, FMA National President Craig Carter noted support for efforts to promote accountability consistent with merit-system principles, including minimizing the burden on supervisors when addressing poor performers, tailoring penalties for misconduct and not requiring progressive discipline, and giving agencies discretion to take into account an employee’s disciplinary record and past record when taking disciplinary action, among others. However, Schedule Policy/Career goes too far.

FMA has stood firm in opposition to this effort since it was first unveiled in President Trump’s first term as Schedule F in October 2020. It increases politicization of the federal workforce and is a giant leap toward a return of the spoils system, prioritizing political loyalty over qualification and merit.

In FMA’s 2025 Issue Briefs we write, “Congress should endeavor to maintain our non-political civil service. The unacceptable elimination of due process for terminating employees leaves feds solely at the whim of politicians – intolerable under any administration, Democratic or Republican. A hallmark of America’s civil service is the foundational, fundamental understanding that federal employees swear an oath to the Constitution and provide services to all Americans, regardless of political party. The federal government cannot function effectively without this nonpolitical civil service capable of preserving institutional memory and competence across administrations.” Pursuant to this opposition, FMA supports the Saving the Civil Service Act (H.R. 492 / S. 134), legislation that would uphold a merit-based civil service.

FMA is preparing comments in opposition to Schedule Policy/Career to submit as part of the 30-day public comment period.