OPM Rule Makes It Easier to Fire Some Federal Workers

The Trump administration announced changes to the way some federal employees are classified, making it easier for agencies to fire them without violating civil service laws.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule on Feb. 5, creating a new classification for up to 50,000 federal employees in policy-influencing roles. The rule — which goes into effect Mar. 9 — strips civil service protections from these employees, converting them to at-will status. The rule is expected to cover about 2% of the federal workforce.

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New Classification

OPM said that it was establishing the “Schedule Policy/Career” category as a civil service reform aimed at strengthening accountability, improving performance, and reinforcing a merit-based federal workforce.

The Schedule Policy/Career classification applies to a limited set of positions that are policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating in nature. The roles will no longer be subject to the removal procedures “that have made accountability for poor performance and misconduct exceedingly rare,” the agency said.

OPM Director Scott Kupor added that “those entrusted with shaping and executing policy must be accountable for results,” and that “this rule preserves merit-based hiring, veterans’ preference, and whistleblower protections while ensuring senior career officials responsible for advancing President Trump’s agenda can be held to the same performance expectations that exist throughout much of the American workforce.”

The rule prohibits political patronage, loyalty tests, or political discrimination, and the new classification may not be used for mass layoffs, OPM said. 

“All that has changed is that policy-making civil servants can be removed at-will — just like private-sector workers and many state government employees,” Kupor said.

He added that current procedural protections make it very difficult to terminate career federal employees despite egregious instances of poor performance and misconduct.

“As a result, almost no federal employees are terminated,” he said. “In fiscal year 2023, for example, only about 3,000 nonprobationary federal employees were terminated for performance or misconduct reasons, about 0.3% of the workforce. Federal managers have little confidence that they can remove poor-performing government employees.”

Resource: Federal Workforce

Implementation and Criticism

Over the next month, agencies will compile lists of positions they intend to move into Schedule Policy/Career for White House review. The rule is likely to cover senior leadership, regional directors, policy advisors, and chiefs of staff. People in roles that draft or edit policy documents or offer policy advice, even if they don’t ultimately make policy decisions, could also be included. The number of reclassified positions could differ widely from one agency to another.

Reclassified employees will be unable to challenge their reclassification and be unable to appeal adverse actions taken against them to the Merit Systems Protection Board, such as a suspension, demotion or firing, OPM said.

OPM officials said impacted employees can still file in district court if they believe they faced discrimination or retaliation in a disciplinary action.

The Trump administration is also altering the process for investigating allegations of whistleblower retaliation. Under OPM’s new rule, individual agencies will now be responsible for setting up their own policies to investigate whistleblower retaliation — a task that has been historically reserved for the independent Office of Special Counsel.

The new classification revives a concept President Donald Trump first introduced in an October 2020 executive order that created “Schedule F,” which would have stripped civil service protections for much of the federal workforce. That order was never implemented and former President Joe Biden canceled it shortly after he took office in 2021.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — the largest union representing federal government employees — said it will lead a coalition of unions and other parties in filing a lawsuit against the rule.

Many of those opposed to the OPM rule said it damages the nonpartisan nature of the career civil service. “This rule is a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service and the government services the American people rely on every day,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “Turning tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of these professionals into at-will employees doesn’t make government more accountable. It makes it more vulnerable to pressure, retaliation, and political interference, which is exactly the opposite of what the public is asking for right now,” he added.

The Trump administration has already significantly reduced the size of the federal government, shedding around 300,000 federal roles in 2025, including tens of thousands who voluntarily accepted a deal to resign in exchange for several months of paid leave.