Last month we reported on the Executive Order (EO) President Trump issued, creating Schedule F in the Federal Government’s Excepted Service. FMA immediately voiced opposition to the action, which creates a new class of career “confidential, policy-determining, or policy-advocating” positions, unprotected by traditional due process. Click here to read the EO in full.

FMA immediately endorsed legislation in both the House and the Senate to nullify the EO, by preventing the executive order being implemented by blocking agencies from converting employees to or hiring any new Schedule F employees, as well as reinstating anyone fired because of this executive order, and granting them back pay.

In November, FMA joined 22 other good government organizations including the Partnership for Public Service, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), the Senior Executives Association, and the Volcker Alliance on a letter to Congress expressing our deep concerns with the EO. 

This month, reports surfaced that 88 percent of staff positions at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) could be classified as Schedule F, further politicizing the federal workforce, stripping those employees of due process and regular merit-based protections, and making them at-will employees. Former OMB career officials and presidential appointees from both parties, dating as far back as the Nixon administration, wrote a powerful letter critical of the effort to politicize the workforce.

OMB is not alone in acting quickly on the EO. Because of this, this week, FMA signed another letter focused on the near-term consequences of Congress failing to act to block the EO, including an easier path to remove civil servants and install political appointees, as well as other disruptions to government operations and the transition to the Biden Administration. Click here to read a copy of the letter urging the nullification of this misguided EO.

In part, the letter said, “The EO creates a broad exception to competitive civil service rules through a new Schedule F job classification, which could apply to hundreds of thousands of federal positions. The EO gives agencies a deadline of January 19 to develop a preliminary list of federal positions to petition the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for conversion to the new Schedule F. However, agencies are already moving, and OPM is encouraging them to provide submissions prior to the deadline. Reports indicate the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) already petitioned OPM to reclassify 88 percent of its workforce, and OPM is poised to approve the reclassifications, if it hasn’t already. Other agencies are also moving forward . . .

“With positions converted to Schedule F, the Trump administration could remove the newly converted employees at any time. Normal due process safeguards ensuring termination for cause would no longer apply and would instead be determined on an agency-by-agency basis. These firings could begin immediately as this session of Congress is coming to a close and there would be little chance for Congress to reverse the actions prior to Inauguration Day. Further compounding the issue are political appointees (including current political appointees under Schedule C) “burrowing” into newly classified Schedule F positions. With the EO directing agency-level protections, removal of converted political appointees could prove difficult.”

The letter urged congressional leaders to block implementation of Executive Order (EO) 13957 in the next government funding package considered by Congress.