Trump administration aims to reclassify some career civil servants so it’s easier to fire them

The Trump administration is moving forward with a new rule to classify some career civil servants as “at-will” federal employees, a move the administration says will make it easier to fire underperforming or subversive employees. 

“Following my Day One Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance. If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the president, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job.”

The White House says the rule, formerly referred to as “Schedule F,” “empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.”

The Office of Personnel Management estimates about 50,000 positions will ultimately be changed to the new status. Civil service employees currently have more protections than political appointees, under a rule intended to prevent turnover from administration to administration. Axios was first to report the administration’s move to weaken protections for some civil servants. 

OPM has proposed a rule to amend the civil service regulations to allow career workers to serve as at-will employees, “without access to cumbersome adverse action procedures or appeals, overturning Biden Administration regulations that protected poor performing employees,” according to the White House. 

“These employees will keep their competitive status and are not required to personally or politically support the president, but must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies,” the White House says. 

OPM’s move builds on an executive order Mr. Trump signed his first day in office in January, creating a new employment classification for many civil servants to effectively strip them of job protections. 

Border Patrol agents and wage and hour inspectors will generally be excluded from the proposed rule.

OPM’s proposed rule doesn’t automatically alter positions, something that would be done by an executive order after a final rule is issued, the White House said. The move is the Trump administration’s latest to downsize and overhaul the federal government.

Olivia Rinaldi

Olivia Rinaldi is a White House reporter at CBS News. She covered President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and was previously an associate producer for “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” and a broadcast associate for “Face the Nation.” She is based in Washington, D.C.