Trump administration finalizes rule stripping job protections from 50,000 federal workers

The Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule on February 5, 2026, implementing Executive Order 14171 to create a new 'Schedule Policy/Career' classification that strips civil service protections from approximately 50,000 federal employees in policy-related roles. The rule, scheduled for Federal Register publication on February 6 and taking effect March 8, 2026, gives the president authority to fire and hire these career employees at will. This reinstates and expands Trump's first-term 'Schedule F' executive order, which Biden had rescinded. The rule fundamentally undermines the nonpartisan civil service system established in 1883, allowing political appointees to replace career professionals across multiple agencies. Federal worker unions and civil service advocates condemned the move as an assault on merit-based governance and a step toward authoritarian control of the bureaucracy.

"The administration says the rule will increase accountability by easing terminations of certain employees with sway over crafting agency policies." — Administration justification for stripping civil service protections from 50,000 federal workers